Another Scalp for the DMCA

321Studios is dead, long live fair use. The software maker ran afoul of Hollywood by building a software decoder, DVD X Copy, which allowed users to make copies of their own DVDs. As the Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not recognize fair use copying by end-users—gee, why would anyone with toddlers in the house want to make a copy of a $20 Disney disc?—321Studios was pretty much doomed once the studios trained their legal guns on them.

Still, 321Studios tried to fight back, encouraging users to contact Congress and ask that fair use not be allowed to perish with the wax cylinder. Some did. But evidently their checks were a little light.