Kaleidescape v DVD CCA: court says ripping DVDs ok

Very few people have heard of the DVD Content Control Association, which the US movie industry basically set up to control the manufacture of DVD players. The DVDCCA licences the DRM (digital locks) that get built into the players, supposedly to inhibit piracy. Now a judge in California says that there is nothing in the DVDCCA contract that prevents a licensee from making equipment to make copies of DVDs. Technically there is nothing in the licence that requires the DVD to be there during playback and the ruling is contractual rather than IP related i.e. the ruling doesn't really mean that ripping the copyrighted contents of DVDs is legal, just that there is nothing in the DVDCCA contract that prohibits it. So I guess Hollywood will kick the lawyers all the way home and hire a new lot to 'enhance' the smallprint in the DVDCCA licence.