"We're obviously disappointed by the court's decision" said Michael Malcolm, Kaleidescape's CEO. "Our plan is to go to the Supreme Court of California. We're confident that were not in breach of our contract with the DVDCCA and until then our products remain fully legal and licensed."
The film industry believes it has the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on its side, which has provisions against technology that can be used to circumvent copy protection mechanisms and facilitate illegal copying. However, at issue is whether consumers are allowed to make copies for personal use - fair use, and none of the rulings of the past few days have answered that question.
In fact, in the RealDVD decision, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel commented that it may in fact be technically legal to do. "It may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally owned DVD on that individual's computer," Patel wrote, "a federal law (the DMCA) has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies."