Kaleidescape, Inc. is a Sunnyvale, California-based private company, founded in 2001, which designs multi-room home entertainment server systems that store and stream video and audio content (such as movies, television shows, and music) to "player" appliances connected to televisions. The company began marketing its products in 2003. Research and development is carried out partly by Kaleidescape Canada based in Waterloo, Ontario.
Video Kaleidescape
History
Kaleidescape was founded in 2001 by Michael Malcolm, Dan Collens, and Cheena Srinivasan. Malcolm had previously founded Network Appliance and CacheFlow. Malcolm self-funded the startup and the company spent over two years developing its technology in "stealth mode." Kaleidescape was reported to be "solidly" profitable and was funded without venture capital money, although as a private company it did not publicly disclose its finances.
The company stopped operations and terminated all of its employees in August 2016. The closure was due to running out of money. CEO Cheena Srinivasan said they are looking for a buyer. The company reopened the following month, having received additional financing.
Maps Kaleidescape
Cinema One
In July 2013, Kaleidescape launched the new Cinema One as the company's new entry-level high-definition entertainment server. Cinema One is a movie server that allows users to watch films instantly and jump to special scenes, bypassing menus. Through Kaleidescape's online movie store, users are able to add high-definition and standard definition movies to their collections instantly. Cinema One allows the storage and playback of up to 100 Blu-ray quality, 600 DVD quality or 6,000 CD quality titles.
Kaleidescape Store
The Kaleidescape Store launched in May 2013 in the US and June 2013 in the UK, becoming the first online store to allow users to download Blu-ray quality movies via an internet-based delivery platform . The initial title offerings included a multi-year license agreement with Warner Bros. The Kaleidescape Store expanded its availability to Canada in September 2013. In October 2013, Kaleidescape announced a multi-year studio agreement with Lionsgate, resulting in the addition of approximately 2,000 titles to the Kaleidescape Store.
- Major Studio Support
- Warner Bros.
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- NBCUniversal
- Lionsgate
- Twentieth Century Fox
- Walt Disney Studios
- Minor Studio Support
- Cinedigm
- Kino Lorber
- Magnolia
- Moving Art
- The Orchard
Legal issues
In 2004, the DVD Copy Control Association, the licensor of CSS (content scramble system), the technology for the copy control of DVDs, sued Kaleidescape for breach of contract. The DVD CCA alleged that its CSS License did not permit Kaleidescape's movie servers to serve DVDs from copies on hard disk. They sued to stop the company from selling these movie servers. Kaleidescape Systems allow users to rip, store, and stream video from DVDs. The case, although only for breach of contract and not a copyright case, was considered by some to be an important recent test of fair use precedent, given advancements in technology and the digital media rights field. In 2007, Kaleidescape won the case. In fact, the DVD CCA had alleged that Kaleidescape had breached terms in a document called the General Specifications. The court ruled that the General Specifications are not even part of the contract.
On August 13, 2009, a California appellate court reversed the lower court's decision that the General Specifications is not part of the CSS License, and sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings (see DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. v. Kaleidescape, Inc.). This appellate court ruling did not address the issue of whether Kaleidescape violated the contract (contrary to some news reports), instead deferring that determination to the lower court. In March 2012, the Superior Court ruled that Kaleidescape had violated the terms of the contract, and issued an injunction prohibiting it from selling or supporting the products in question.
The California 6th District Court of Appeal granted Kaleidescape a temporary stay of the injunction on March 29, 2012. This temporary stay stops the injunction from coming into effect, while the Court of Appeal decides whether or not to stay the injunction during the entire appeal process.
References
External links
- Kaleidescape
- Kaleidescape, Inc. Hoover's Factsheet
Source of article : Wikipedia
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