In an unprecedented step, the AACS LA has asked the Office of the US Trade Representative to place Antigua and Barbuda on the list of countries under a "priority watch" for failure to provide adequate remedies to enforce its prohibition on circumvention of technological protection measures (“TPMs”) and thereby to protect the intellectual property protected by such TPMs. The AACS LA is an organization established by various movie studios to issue licenses for encryption technology necessary to protect and playback movies in Blu-ray and HD Blu-ray formats, and they have become increasingly concerned over the effects from programs that bypass AACS encryption. In this particular case, they are targeting Slysoft, the maker of the excellent decryption program, AnyDVD HD.
This is not the first time that the AACS LA have attempted to stop Slysoft. In 2007 they began legal proceedings against Slysoft. The law in Antigua makes copyright offenses a criminal matter, and there is no civil recourse, so the AACS LA had to persuade the Antiguan authorities to carry out the prosecution of Slysoft and its owner, Giancarlo Bettini. After many delays, the case went to trial in 2010 and finally concluded in 2014. Bettini was found guilty of six charges of infringement and ordered to pay $5000 per offense, or if he failed to pay the fines, he would be sent to jail for a maximum of 12 months, but the case went to appeal, and has yet to be addressed in the courts again. The company, Slysoft, was also found guilty, but at a lesser level and not fined. In the meantime, Slysoft has continued to operate virtually unscathed from the prosecution and they regularly update their main program, AnyDVD HD to counter any encryption changes made by the AACS LA.
This has led to absolute frustration on the part of the AACS LA, and now they seek recourse from the US government, in an attempt to force action by the Antiguan government. In the document submitted by the association to the US Trade Representative, the AACS LA seems particularly concerned about the upcoming HD Blu-ray format, with its new form of encryption. It seems they are trying to do what they can to shut down Slysoft before they can break this new protection scheme.
For those who see AnyDVD HD and Slysoft as a last line of defense for fair use, this action by the AACS LA is unwelcome and yet another sign of their continued campaign of copyright expansion/maximization. The association and the movie studios they represent see it differently of course, and if they can undercut Slysoft, they would regard it as a major blow against piracy. Protecting the new ultra high definition copies of their movies looks like a high priority for them this year. We shall see how it plays out.
You can read more on the story at TorrentFreak.
And the .pdf file linked earlier in the story is most illuminating as well. Straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
