Warner Bros, Intel File DMCA Suit Over HDCP Crack Devices

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Warner Bros. and Intel subsidiary Digital Content Protection are suing Freedom USA and its CEO Alex Sonis for selling devices that circumvent HDCP.

Freedom USA is the parent company of AVA Direct and Antarespro.com. The plaintiffs filed a complaint alleging violation of the DMCA and are asking for an injunction that prevents Freedom USA from importing, manufacturing and offering HDCP circumvention products, as well as their seizure and impoundment, in addition to damages.

According to the lawsuit, the products currently being offered allow buyers to "engage in unauthorized [content] copying". Warner Bros. also alleges that its intellectual property is also vulnerable to unauthorized access, presumably because Freedom USA's products use the HDCP master key, which was cracked about two years ago.

The lawsuit specifically targets the "SIIG C-H20511-S1 HDMI toYPbPr/VGA & Audio Conv", "StarTech.com MNHD2VGAE VideoCable", "SABRENT HDMI TO VGACONVERTER HDMI INPUT", "SIIG CE-H21011-S1 - SIIG HDMI toVGA Converter with Audio Functions: Signal Conversion" and "CE LABS HDMI TO COMPOSITESCALER" that are offered via channels such as Ebay. The devices were previously available via large retailers such as Newegg as well, but have been removed from their websites recently.

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Wolfgang Gruener
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nukemaster
    All those devices look more useful to let someone with an old analog(Composite/Component/VGA) set use a new bluray player/cable box.

    I know they may not know it, but movies are ripped from the disc not from a bluray player or cable box to one of these then tons of conversions/compression.

    This just hurts customers for no good reason.
    Reply
  • wolley74
    better get rid of set top boxes and computers in general, maybe DVD / CD / Bluray drives need to go away as well, they all help it
    Reply
  • sacre
    /looks at DVD/CD/Blu-ray drive

    Oh s***! They're going to sue me next!

    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    I'm starting to question my ambitions as a material engineer...

    Hmm, maybe I can double up on copyright/patent law study AND material engineering. Who needs some damn cookies when you can earn stupidly large and stable amount of money.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Who rips BD movies through HDMI/VGA dump? Much more convenient to rip the BD media itself and strip the AACS protection there... much faster, cheaper, uses a lot less disk space and allows perfect binary copies.

    Sounds like studios barking up the wrong tree to me.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    InvalidErrorWho rips BD movies through HDMI/VGA dump?Because it works no matter what the source.

    InvalidErrorMuch more convenient to rip the BD media itself and strip the AACS protection there... much faster, cheaper, uses a lot less disk space and allows perfect binary copies.Sounds like studios barking up the wrong tree to me.But nobody has cracked the master key. And they're not going to, since Blu-ray uses real crypto. All the existing cracks have done is stolen some keys that new discs will stop supporting.
    Reply
  • Pinhedd
    nukemasterAll those devices look more useful to let someone with an old analog(Composite/Component/VGA) set use a new bluray player/cable box.I know they may not know it, but movies are ripped from the disc not from a bluray player or cable box to one of these then tons of conversions/compression.This just hurts customers for no good reason.
    Broadcast television and PayPerView also use HDCP
    Reply
  • PreferLinux
    I think a lot of people here are missing the fact that Blu-Ray isn't the only thing that uses HDCP...
    Reply
  • memadmax
    OOOOOOOOOHH....

    So thats why they are pushing BD so hard for >_>

    And here I thought it was for the marginal improvement of screen quality that I can barely notice ^.^ >_>
    Reply
  • LordConrad
    memadmaxOOOOOOOOOHH....So thats why they are pushing BD so hard for >_>And here I thought it was for the marginal improvement of screen quality that I can barely notice ^.^ >_>The difference in video quality between DVD and Blu-ray is quite pronounced, you either need to get glasses or dump your CRT television.
    Reply