could change the location of the servers... to a country that isn't going to care about the content

Even a small star shines in the darkness.--Finnish proverb

Wolf

Hey all, there is another website that some may know of while others do not know of, it's: www.videohelp.com

This site may still help those in need of DVD/Video issues since AD will no longer be hosting guides.

Hey look on the bright side, at least DVD Decrypter still stays (even though its not updated anymore its still good) and just in case heres a reason to not take it off. its not solely for ripping dvds as it is useful for making and burning your own data. Like when i have lots of things and I'm gonna burn my things to a dvd i make an iso with Nero and burn it with DVD Decrypter (I just trust decypter more i guess).

DVD Shrink gets to stay as well?
Cheers to you Afterdawn, I'm still impressed with everything over the past few years. Heck I remember coming here for help on burning certain cd image files, audio file converters, etc... back when CDRWin was the sh*t, and people used Adaptec (sp?) Easy CD creator (obviously before Roxio hee hee) I kept playing around and trying to copy PS1 games (PSX hadn't caught on yet as a term) and making VCDs...lmao those were good times! I thank everyone that took the time to write guides, especially the folks who could dummy it down enough for me to understand! Gosh, I even remember back when EVERY OTHER topic and post WASN'T about the RIAA or MPAA, or this law or that law.... then again I had AOL on 5 1/4 floppy disks, running on my Zenith ZDS, pimped out with the monochrome monitor...when 14.4 modem was pimpin' and people ran BBSs... we sure in a decline of being able to have "fun" without getting hounded by the law.

Reflective rant aside, kudos to you Afterdawn for making it this far with the content you have hosted. I'm sure even with the new Finnish laws you'll still be the premiere "go-to" site for all things audio/visual.

-Minnesota Guy

this law really bites. haven"t got to use it much, hope you find a way around this archaic law, pissed off pennsy

I`ve been coming to this site for a few years now and have learned more than anyone else I know locally about A/V software. This site is a great teaching guide and it`s a damn shame it has to be censored. I`m afraid it won`t be long before they remove any and all software of A/V formatt from the market and throw any blackmarket programmers into prison for life. After all, you get caught selling pot you`ll do more time than if you murder someone. A life sentence would have to be appropriate for a programmer.
Toofer

Manton
Its just a matter of time till the big boys buy out AnyDVD and the rights.

Free programs such as DVD43, DVDFabDecrypter etc... will probably go before AnyDVD since they obviously don't generate the cash flow that AnyDVD does

And, just this past weekend, AnyDVD 'backed up' a CD (using Nero) that my daughter was unable to 'back up' using the same program without AnyDVD

when a program leaves, another will certainly take it's place

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I would say incorporate in another country and then set up a website in that country that will allow you to provide links to that website. Also, is it illegial to provide links to slysoft and there products?

When CocaCola dosn't want to pay tax they invent a virtual head quater in the Cayman Islands.
They don't even have an office there by the way.

There must be a place where you can break almost any copyright.
Let me guess. China? Thailand? Russia? So on a website sited on such a location anything goes.
In Sweden they have organised a new political party the Pirate Party, which aim is to legalize all software piracy.;-)
It is a fundamental issue that a programme is not worn out if 1 million people downloaded it. It remains the same. It is like a never ending meal that can feed all the human race from the same plate of food.
It is potential richness for all the human race.
This prosperity is attacked by a handfull of greedy corporate people, that does not want to share those opportunities of wealth.
It is essential that we the people demand a share in that wealth!

greetings from "Lyrik"

Lyrik, you made the perfect analogy. Feed all of humanity from the same plate of food. Don't you think something that universally genius ought to be supported and rewarded to the individuals who spent tons of time, money and energy, all kinds of resouces to introduce the product years ago, evolve it through innovative evolutionary upgrades and plans to continue funding through continued product developemnt?

Commuinst or capitalist I'm sure you like to reward constructive workers and continue to fund the engines of progress. Am I right?

Response to mikecUSA:

I do not see it as a job for me to make a crusade for the firms to make more money.
1 % americans owns 50% of the worlds riches and they don't share!

They want films and software to be expensive. I want it to be really cheap.
And i want anything that is available on the internet to be legal to download without restrictions.

They want prohibitions. I want freedom.

greets lyrik

I am a consumer that "buys", whether it be new or previously viewed. I have spent literally thousands of dollars over the past 6 years. I recently RENTED "The Fog" because this was filmed in my local area. The reviews were not that good. There is so much darn protection on it that it would not play properly. Viewing the extra features was excrutiating....each one took over a minute to load on my Toshiba. I gave up. If this is what the future holds, I am one consumer that will stop BUYING.

Well, last year i bought a pc game called Football Manager 2005. I actually bought that game as well, i'm not just saying... When i got home and tried to install it, it would not play because i had emulators on my pc. I deleted AnyDVD, Daemon Tools AND Alcohol 120% from my HDD, turned Nero's Image Drive off... But it still didn't play. Needless to say, in the end i got fed up so i copied the game, cracked it open, then used my emulators to play it... Took me in total 20 minutes to do it... Oh, and in the end i got my money back for it! What's the point in buying a new game, if you have to crack it in order to play it?

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Everything today is about money. Who has it and who doesn't! The ones who have it rule the ones who don't. Look at cars! We have several great $5000 cars today. The only problem is that they cost $20,000! Why? Because the government was so flushed (a good word) with success when they first passed emissions laws that they went and passed tougher and tougher ones. In some places the air is dirtier than what has to come out of the exhaust pipe. Who pays? The poor guy who really can't afford it. Guys like Trump and Bill Gates don't even know (or care!) what their cars cost to buy, maintain, insure or run. Oh well, I guess when you have more money than you would ever need, $2.50 a gallon or more doesn't mean much.
Sony better hope that I don't get their ROOTIP VIRUS because they are going to get sued! Not in the usual way but in a way that will cripple them in the Stock Market. What they have done is just as much a crime as some hacker breaking into Micro$oft or some other big company. They have broken the law and hacked their way into the many "injured Parties" computers. The courts cannot allow Sony to get away with it while prosecuting and imprisoning people that hack into a system and plant a virus. Not with a company the size of Sony doing the same thing!

Quote:

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Oh well, I guess when you have more money than you would ever need, $2.50 a gallon or more doesn't mean much

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I wish i only paid that for petrol... In Britain we pay about £0.88 per litre... Do your counts and then tell me what you think about it on a normal workers wage...

In the US everything is cheap compared to the prices we carry in Europe. (Britain beeing one of the most expensive)

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Instead of passing a new copyright law they should focus on catching crooks and killers. I'm not familiar with statistics in Finland so bear with me and it's just an idea.

Permiggs,
That's the reason Britain stayed with 8 bit computers long after the rest of the world went to 16 bits. Back in those days and Amstrad 8 bit machine cost twice as much as a 386 did here. That and the fact that virtually all the home and business computers there at that time were 8 bit antway. I don't know what the chip was but it may have been a Z80. Seem to remember a price tag of around $5000 with a monochrome monitor.

theonejrs

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Hi folks,
Is there another Website that has the Programs remvoed from "AfterDawn" site due to the New Finnish Rule?? If so, please give me the URL.
THANKS!

I made an interesting find (literally!)the other day. Seems I was walking down the street and spotted a paper DVD envelope. In it was an "official" copy of King Kong that was made for the Motion Picture Academy. Only to be viewed by the judges for consideration when voting for the Oscars. It even briefly runs a message across the bottom of the screen saying just that, while you are viewing the movie! Since it is not yet available on DVD and so far there has been no release date given for when it will be available! And since it isn't a "9" disk, I wonder what program they illegally used to make it???

Theonejrs

P.S. To the MPAA. No you can't have it back. It's in the hands of the legal people. Want to do something usefull? Catch the guy who is copying and selling your DVDs! He's the one who is causing you your problems. I only want to back up my own personal DVDs, put the original away and not worry about some idiot messing up the copy by using it as a frisbie, as I can always make a replacement from my original. I call it a "working" copy I'm not talking about Piracy, I'm talking about my right to make a copy of my bought and paid for DVD for my own personal use!

A little food for thought MPAA. 10 million people can't be wrong! In fact, it's a rather large group of people you pissed off! Believe me when I say "this will come back to haunt you"! Do us both a favor and go after the people who are hurting you financially. Not the 10 million or more you've wronged! You will discover that piracy is not the guy in his home making a copy for his own personal use. It's the guy who makes a copy off of the theater screen with a digital video camera or steals an "Official" copy like the one I found and runs off copies of it at $10 or $15 bucks a shot. He's the guy you need to get! The public outcry over you guys winning legislation to ban all copying of DVDs has prompted enough interest as there are now several official fact finding surveys that show that over 93% of people using encryption removal, ripping and copying software, do so for THEIR OWN PERSONAL USE! Out of the 7% left a little over 2% of that are average Jane and Joe who make a few bucks selling DVDs. That only leaves 5%. They are the 5% who are the extremely well organized, well equipped, who bang out thousands of copies of any movie you put on the screen and sell it on the street! Better yet, go get the guy that sold it to them in the first place. You know, the guy who works for the studio! He shouldn't be too hard to find. He's the one with a couple of extra grand in his bank account at the right time. When you find and stop him you will then discover that you took the wrong route and in the process you managed to piss off 10 million people!

Enough Said!!!
theonejrs

If some of us in this forum made a copy of all the banned software, it could be offered to us, by us, for us...and screw the FINISHIAN COPYRIGHT LAW.
I still think that if I bought something, and paid for it...it legally belongs to me!
I want to unlock a copy, burn a backup and sell the original on eBay at a discount.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT!!!
What happened to free enterprise.
Abroad you can buy as much pirated software and movies as you want...imagine WINDOWS XP PRO for 3 bucks and the latest movies too.
The worst part is that it gets brought into the US and people pass it thru US Customs too.
The Chinese are the kings on piracy, next are the the Arab countries.

PLUG-INs: What if ...

WHAT IF you make your software "open". That means, you remove what is illegal in your country and let someone, somewhere make the plug-ins, services, whatever that will add such "functionality" in your backbone software. It could not even be installed together. It could be based on web services or even SOA. Software in the future will be a collaborative "mess" so big that no one will be able to identify really who/what/where is that ?

Think about ... move ahead into the future and let the all those boundaries behind. Regards.

Does Finland have what we in the US call "judicial review"? I admit to almost complete ignorance of Finnish law (ok, complete ignorance except for the language of this law). Basically, the judicial branch has the authority--in most cases--to throw out laws that violate the Constitution or what the Anglo-Saxon counties call "common law."

In a nutshell, in our country, a law like this would have to pass muster in court for the very reasons cited: it's vauge to the point of being incomprehensible.

There's no language in the statute which tells someone what does or does not constitute a violation. Which means that someone with no criminal intent whatsoever could quite unintentionally violate it.

There is also a mechanism in US law which allows affected parties to challenge a law without "breaking" it--in other words, a "test" case is not necessary. A law can be challenged in Federal court and the Executive branch (or ministry in parliamentary systems) would have to prove to a judge that the law was in fact legal. If the judge find that it is not, the law is thrown out.

Before trial, in many cases, enforcement of the law in question is suspended by the judge hearing the case. I know Finland has a constitution. Surely there's got to be a way to challenge this absurd law.

I know more about Finnish history (way to go kicking the crap out of the Soviets in '40!); Finns are considered some of the best soldiers in history--perhaps even equal to ours. Certainly in the same league with the German Army of 1870-1945, the French Army of 1792-1812, the British Army of 1689-1815, or the Roman Army ( ca. 300 BCE to 200CE)

n0v0n (15 Feb 06 posting) is confused about the conditions under which we all (globally) purchased CDs and DVDs (and all other recorded material / software as well). We NEVER purchase the movie / music / software / whatever. We ONLY purchase the media upon which it resides AND the license to use the movie / music / software / whatever recorded thereon WITHIN the rules spelled out in the EULA. Sorry n0v0n. That has been true for decades; and quite frankly is as reasonable as it gets. The PROBLEM which everyone is concerned about is the corruption of the Fair Use policy by Microsoft and Hollywood so they can fatten their quarterly bottom lines (which is the only measure these folks are measured on).