After six years of litigation, German company ViTec Audio-Video GmbH came out on top: An appeals court in Düsseldorf ruled that ViTec did not infringe on Macrovison's patents (LG Düsseldorf 40150/ 99, OLG Düsseldorf 2 U 62/ 00 - the dicision is not available online).
What does this mean? That ViTec can continue producing their hardware, which "amplifies", as they call it, the video signal of DVDs in order to achieve "absolutely interference-free" signals: "Newly created synchronizing impulses make for a stable picture state and clear all interference from the video signal," is how they describe the technology on their website.
Which means what? That for 158 Euros you can say goodbye to Macrovision's "copy protection".
Of course ViTec cannot market their products as what they are. After all, since Septemeber 2003, complying with the WIPO treaties and the EU Copyright directive, Germany has a revised authors rights code, including paragraph 95a - the equivalent of the US DMCA's section 1201, the anti-circumvention provision.
But as long as ViTec can sell their boxes as "video copy-amplifying" tools...
Posted by Matthias Spielkamp at 04.08.05 18:32