Wikipedia Digital Millenium Copyright Act

As the consumer market moves into this very digital age, few products stand out as high quality and reliable as the Kaleidescape server. It is a premium product, no doubt, but for the avid collector of DVD & Blu-Ray discs it offered the best option for storing your movie collection in an accessible manner without breaking any laws due to the method of storage (bit for bit, encrypted, licensed etc.)

Until Monday 12 March that is...

A judgement of permanent injunction against the sale and support of the Kaleidescape servers is now in place. As explained in the article from CEPro "...The far-reaching injunction touches not just Kaleidescape, but its agents, franchisees and "those acting in concert with them or at their direction," all of which are “permanently restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly making, having made, selling, offering to sell, marketing, importing or otherwise transferring any DVD Playback Product” that does not have a physical disk present during playback, the court ordered."

As part of the injunction, Kaleidescape can no longer offer technical support for products that are already in the field, meaning existing servers can receive no updates or repairs..."

Kaleidescape CEO Michael Malcolm issued the following statement "For the past 8 years, we've been baffled about why this lawsuit ever happened, since our products don't encourage piracy, but do increase sales of movies. Maybe it's because the large CE companies in Japan and the big computer companies in the USA, on the board of the DVD CCA, are afraid that Kaleidescape is building a better way to enjoy DVDs and Blu-ray Discs than they are. Imagine a world where Apple wasn't allowed to build the iPod because Sony wanted a 'level playing field' for the Walkman."

This example of ignorance from the 'copyright holders' aka movie studio execs displays a failing to recognise the needs of consumers and open themselves to a ready market. Imagine a business model where the content holders provided a legal and affordable means of accessing your entertainment media... iTunes, Netflix, Rhapsody do spring to mind.

CEPro Kaleidescape article

A very relevant comment from a poster on Slashdot.org