4K Copyright Stripper To Pay Millions In Damages

First, there were video tapes, then the CD revolution came around and we started finding our movies in better quality on a DVD, only to then have the DVD replaced by Blu-ray. These days you don’t even need to go buy a Blu-ray to get great quality with the ability to stream your favourite movies online or buy a digital copy and download it to enjoy on your phone for the go. The latest level of content is to go beyond HD and enjoy your favourite scenes in 4K quality. In a recent lawsuit, we can see just how much they want to keep the copyright on your 4K movies.

In order to protect your movies, DCP a subsidiary of Intel uses their standard of heavy digital copyright protection (HDCP) to stop people from ripping and taking 4K movies to share online. Like with all new technologies that protect movies, it wasn’t long before companies started selling equipment that could bypass the protections in place, with DCP looking to stop two companies from giving you pirated 4K content.

One of the companies involved was Ace Deal, a California-based company, and have now admitted to breaching HDCP. With 2000 devices sold by the company the total fine they’ve been hit with is a whopping $5,250,000. With such a huge fine for what is a small company, this should come as a lesson for anyone who’s looking to rip and pirate 4K media, that lesson is it will cost.