DVDFab Loses Legal Battle Against AACS LA
A federal court in New York has ruled in favor of AACS LA and has issued an injunction granting the seizure of several domain names belonging to the Chinese-based DVD ripping company DVDFab. The case was brough to court by the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator, LLC, (AACS LA), which is licensing the digital rights protection scheme for commecial Blu-ray disc movies.
Last year, AACS sued the makers of chinese DVD ripping software DVDFab and won a preliminary injunction based on the argument that the software violates the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause, since it can bypass DVD encryption. Feng Tao of Fengtao Software
Inc. was recognized as responsible for the development and distribution of DVDFab, and requested for the U.S. District Court of Southern District Of New York to revise its earlier judgment.
DVDFab claimed that DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions don’t apply worldwide, and DVDFab was promising to no longer do business with U.S. customers. On the other hand, AACS argued that the circumvention software was still being offered and promoted though new domains and services in the U.S.
Earlier this week, District Court Judge Vernon Broderick sided with AACS. He ordered the seizure of several new domain names that promoted DVDFab.
According to the ruling, DVDFab cannot distribute its software in public and should disable and cease use of the DVDFab Domain Names, the DVDFab Websites, and the social media or online service accounts associated with, and any pages, profiles, or channels located at specific URLs controlle by the Chinese software maker.
The Judge also ordered that that any third party persons or entities who are members or participants in DVDFab's "affiliate program" (whe
reby affiliates earn commissions by promoting or selling the DVDFab software) to cease offering to the public, providing, promoting, selling or otherwise trafficking, on their websites or through any other means, in the DVDFab Software.