The owner of the company behind a suite of popular DVD ripping tools has lost his case against several large Hollywood studios and their technology partners. Slysoft owner Giancarla Bettini was found guilty of providing tools to circumvent AACS encryption and was fined $30,000. Failure to pay will result in a jail sentence.

Slysoft is currently labeled a "rogue site" by the USTR but AACS has had the company on its radar for some time. After technical measures introduced by AACS failed to thwart Slysoft's software, the group looked towards legal action. With the DMCA useless overseas, AACS looked to Antigua's Copyright Act of 2003 which includes anti-circumvention clauses, as detailed below.

However, a quirk of the law meant that only criminal action could be taken against Slysoft, leaving AACS at the mercy of Antiguan authorities who they hoped would bring a case against company owner, Giancarlo Bettini. Fortunately for the U.S. giants that's exactly what happened in 2012 and now, 11 years after the anti-circumvention law was introduced, Antigua has its first conviction.

In an Antigua & Barbuda court, Bettini was found guilty of six charges under the 2003 Copyright Act and ordered to pay a find of $5,000 per offense. Bettini was told to settle two of the $5,000 fines immediately, with payment of the other four deadlined for the end of April. Failure to pay carries six months in jail for each offense