RedFox developer Peer has written a statement about AnyDVD that explains pirates were never the intended audience for the software. His statement comes after he read on the website Torrentfreak that some release groups of pirated movies fear it will take more time to release movies in the future without AnyDVD. Peer writes about that, "What I found depressing, was how this places SlySoft next to the pirates and makes it sound as if piracy is what we were doing this for."
He continues his post explaining that he defines piracy as, "making copies and mass-distributing them - for money, for shits and giggles, for feeling a bit less like dirt, whatever gets them going."
According to Peer, only a small percentage of AnyDVD's user base uses the software for piracy. And, he notes, given these users are pirates, it's likely they aren't even paying customers. Peer concludes, "So, of course, SlySoft could have easily done without the pirates - and had they, SlySoft might even still exist."
He also notes that in case AnyDVD wasn't used by pirates ,the AACS-LA would still have gone after Slysoft. RedFox is the resurrection of Slysoft, which was under continuous pressure of the AACS-LA. According to Peer the AACS-LA, a licensing body for the Blu-ray copy protection, is also after pirates to justify their existence. He writes about that, "They have this huge money-making machine, collect fees for every BD ever being sold without having to really, well, do much (god, I wish I were the AACS-LA), while promising to protect the discs in return, which effectively doesn't work - so they have no choice but to fight back."
According to Peer this, and another reason is why Slysoft became the target and not the actual pirates, "The other reason is: it just wouldn't work. Pirates have a higher level of anonymity, and they are also too many. So even if this was (just) about piracy, SlySoft would remain the main target."
He goes on how he thinks piracy is an issue but he also believes the numbers might be exaggerated, "Piracy is an issue. You can't deny that it is hurting the movie industry. And you can't deny that we were involuntarily helping piracy. Just like the glass cutter involuntarily helps burglary. Though you can argue over the numbers. They like to pretend that every single downloaded movie is one sold disc less. Of course that is utter nonsense. A lot of that stuff gets downloaded simply because it's there. At least 99 out of 100 downloads are done by people who wouldn't even consider paying for the disc. And I'm willing to bet, that 99% is too cautious an estimate."
A solution for content owners is Digital Rights Management (DRM), Peer writes about that, "Personally, I think the whole industry is getting off track with their DRM. It does make sense to have it in place. As I said, the pirates are a real problem. But they want to gain more and more control over what the consumers do. Sort of finding a second purpose for the DRM already in place."
Nowadays a lot of people with high-speed internet connections stream movies instead of actually purchasing them. This means you no longer own a physical disc containing the movie, but have to rely on the existence of the streaming service. Peer has a clear opinion on video streaming services, "That is already a service that puts you in chains. Even when you "buy" a movie on a streaming platform, you're asking for permission every single time you want to watch it (which is why I'm hesitant to call it "buying", you simply don't own the thing). Have the platform go dead and your "owned" movies are just as gone. You think Netflix is going to exist forever? They're likely to be around for quite a while, but things change so fast these days, especially with anything having "Internet" in its description. Maybe they decide to sell rubber boots someday (sorry, that joke will mostly make sense in Finland) [Nokia started as a company selling rubber boots] and close down the streaming business, because the competition ruins the profit."
In the future an internet connection might also be required if you're not into streaming movies, the new AACS 2.0 protection that will be part of Ultra HD Blu-rays will likely require an internet connection to be able to play a disc at least for the first time. Peer comments on that, "And the AACS 2.0 specification (for UHD discs) is trying to get there too. With the - so far - optional possibility to have the disc fetch decryption keys from some server each and every time. Reminds me of the recent Internet failure here, just a couple of days ago - TV, phone and Internet all broke down at once, what was left was my collection of discs (yes, all bought and paid for) to spend the evening with. Unless of course I'd need permission to watch from the studio. Over that dead Internet connection."
Many AnyDVD users use the software to make backups of their movies, something often called fair use, Peer writes about that, "I'm not even diving too deep into the whole backup and fair use thing - I think everybody knows about that. Some of the DVDs my kids have been using look like they've been treated with sand paper. Some of the more "busy" ones actually look like sand paper. Blu-ray coatings are a lot more resilient - but unfortunately Blu-rays are also more sensitive to scratches. And some cease to play without any visible damage. I have 7 or 8 damaged BDs among the non-kids category that I know of - possibly many more, because most discs I never touched twice, so I wouldn't know. Meanwhile I transfer the most precious ones to my server. "
He concludes his statement with, "So, sorry MPAA, AACS and all you people with the fancy acronyms - we can't help you with the piracy, but since no one is helping us with the movies, we're picking up things ourselves."
