Seller of DVD Software Is Sued

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Paramount Pictures Corp. have sued online retailer Technology One, accusing it of defiantly selling DVD-copying software banned by two federal courts.

The lawsuit marks the first time a movie company has sued a retailer of the forbidden software by 321 Studios Inc.

Other retailers voluntarily halted sales of the software after federal judges in New York and California -- at Hollywood’s behest -- ordered 321 of suburban St. Louis to stop making and marketing it.

Hollywood studios long have insisted that DVD-copying products violate the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bars circumvention of anti-piracy measures used to protect DVDs and other technology.

Since the New York and California rulings, 321 has shipped retooled versions of its DVD-copying products, removing the component that unscrambles the encryption on movies.

The latest lawsuit, announced Friday by the Motion Picture Assn. of America, was filed in federal court in Manhattan.

“Technology One, by categorically refusing to comply with the studios’ cease-and-desist notices, will learn from the courts that by continuing to sell the banned software it is breaking the law,” said Jim Spertus, vice president and chief of MPAA’s domestic anti-piracy operations.

A worker at Los Angeles-based Technology One, who refused to identify himself, said that he was unaware of the lawsuit and that “nobody ever told us to stop selling” the software.

The latest suit seeks a court order barring Technology One from continued sales of the software, as well as damages.

321 has argued that its products merely guarantee consumers fair use of the movies they’ve bought.