Frequently Asked Questions

MMS has thoroughly worked through all legal details and is in full compliance with current U.S. federal law. For details, refer to the MMS Legal FAQ.

MMS products include internal tuners and accept a CableCard from cable providers for access to live TV content. The CableCard ensures secure access to subscribed channels. MMS products can also accept over-the-air (OTA) TV antenna programming. DRM-protected channels require DRM features in the tuner hardware that validate a “protected path” to the display device. This protected path requires a return loop using the HDCP copy protection scheme, which is supported in the tuner card, CPU, GPU, main board chipset, and loadable firmware / software drivers.

The graphics stack drivers were developed for MMS by Intel, and these drivers that enable the hardware HDCP require that the operating system be validated at boot time with “trusted boot” technology, included in the shipped operating system. This ensures a valid protected path.

Yes. As proof, there are multiple brands of DVRs that today prominently advertise some form of commercial-skipping. While other solutions are far more limited in scope of channels or times of day supported, the concept has been well-accepted across the industry as a legitimate DVR feature. MMS is unique primarily in that it uses automated software technology, rather than manual labor, to flag commercial sequences.

For DVD discs, the technology used has been in the public domain for 20 years, included in every major distribution of the linux operating system freely provided to millions of users. U.S. copyright law explicitly allows for reverse-engineering of technological measures when required for the purpose of interoperability, as was the case with linux, where no commercial alternatives were available. Preventing disc playback on popular operating systems could be an anti-trust concern over restraint of free trade.

For Blu-ray discs, where the principle remains the same but there is less precedent, MMS has elected in an abundance of caution not to supply active decryption technology, but instead permit this to be an individual decision of the user.

U.S. copyright law places restrictions on how DRM-protected content may be decrypted. The methods used inside Modulus to record streaming content does not include any decryption technology. The decryption is handled using the provider’s decryption technology as delivered to the user’s device from them directly. Modulus has developed a technique that intercepts the stream after it has been legally decrypted for a given valid user account. Thus, the challenges of stream recording in high definition are entirely technical in nature, not legal.

Over a half-dozen other companies serving the home theater market with disc import capability have used the same method for many years (some over 10 years). Management research and industry expert inputs indicate that none of these companies were shut down, or sued, for violating U.S. copyright law.

Kaleidescape was sued for breach of contract with the DVD CCA. They won in a March 2007 ruling, but it was overturned 5 years later on appeal over a technicality. The license agreement they signed included adherence to the entirety of the “CSS General Specifications”, but their product was centered around violating one of the terms regarding simultaneous use. Had they not signed that agreement with the DVD CCA, they would not have been in violation.

The most relevant law is the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Specifically, Chapter 12 of Section 103 of the DMCA generated the most controversy relating to media content. It makes it illegal to circumvent technological measures (i.e. encryption) that control access to work (“access control”), when circumvention is the only or primary commercial purpose. While it is legal for a consumer to use circumvention to make personal copies of media he/she has rights to access, it is not legal to traffic in the circumvention software that enables it. MMS avoids this issue because MMS does not “traffic in any circumvention software” and furthermore provides no support for such software (the consumer makes that choice for their personal use after installing the unit).

Just as important, there are critical exemptions in the DMCA, including that copy-control circumvention (once access is authorized) is not prohibited. Also, the DMCA upholds the long-standing “Fair Use” doctrine permitting limited duplication of copyrighted material for personal use without requiring permission. Furthermore, the DMCA explicitly allows reverse-engineering of technological measures for the purpose of interoperability. This is the exact situation with the DVD and Blu-Ray libraries discussed above.