Attorneys for Chinese software maker DVDFab this week filed additional papers in an court in the United States where the company is being sued by AACS-LA, a consortium of technology and content providers and developers of the copy-protection on Blu-ray.
The filing was in response to the broad injunction granted by the court at the request of AACS-LA which had world-wide effects, according to the company far beyond the jurisdiction of a US court and US law, specifically the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act).
In the papers the Chinese company argues that the injunction should be only valid in the United States. DVDFab argues it no longer sells to US citizens and also sells products that don't circumvent the copy- protection developed by the AACS-LA. Currently the injunction is so broad that the AACS-LA would be able to wipe the company from the internet meaning DVDFab would not even be able to sell software to people outside the US. The company would also no longer be able to sell products that don't circumvent any copy-protection.
DVDFab also argues it has no relationship to the United States whatsoever, the company is no longer selling to US customers, has no servers located in the US and no employees in the US. The company adds to that that 65% of its products are sold to customers outside the US and that the company used domain names available to users world wide or German or Japanese domains which have no relationship to the US.
Summarized the company argues US copyright laws should not be applied worldwide and certainly not to a Chinese company with no relationship to the United States. Also sales of products that do not circumvent copy protections should not be included in the junction.
An interesting part of the documents reveals that the AACS-LA has been secretly checking whether DVDFab no longer sells its products to US customers. The organisation purchased software from DVDFab and provided proof to the court. However, according to DVDFab, the sale was made in China running a Chinese version of Windows which renders any point the AACS-LA tries to make useless.
A hearing in this legal battle will probably take place in a few weeks. The outcome of the legal battle might be interesting as it affects many foreign companies selling products to the United States.
