Fair use copying of commercially manufactured movie DVDs took a step in favor of consumer rights last week when a California court ruled that the media server company Kaleidescape was not violating its DVD CCA contract by allowing users to copy movies from DVD discs to hard drives. The DVD Copy Control Association, or DVD CCA, sued Kaleidescape alleging that the company was violating the Content Scramble System licensing - used to keep consumers from copying movies - by allowing them to make copies that are stored on Kaleidescape equipment, according to CE Pro.

Kaleidescape makes movie and music server systems that consumers can use in their own homes. The servers are capable of copying CSS-protected discs and storing the movies on built-in hard drives, which the DVD CCA claims they can’t do.

The Downtown Superior Court of Santa Clara in San Jose, California, however, disagreed and ruled in favor of Kaleidescape. In his ruling, Judge Leslie C. Nichols stated "nothing in the agreement prevents you from making copies of DVDs. Nothing requires that a DVD be present during playback."

In other words, users can copy a DVD movie to a hard drive and play that movie back without having the original disc present. The ruling does not mean that anyone can copy commercial DVDs; Instead it means that Kaleidescape is not violating its Content Scramble System license agreement with the DVD CCA.

Although Judge Nichols’ ruling doesn’t go so far as to say that consumers can copy DVDs just as they already do with CDs under the fair use doctrine, it is certainly a step in the right direction. But by confirming that Kaleidescape is acting within its license agreement when allowing users to copy movies to its closed system server products, the door is now open for a future court to allow consumers to copy movies to their own computers without fear of repercussion.