The device shown above is a $199 video peripheral that Warner Brothers doesn't think should have been in anyone's Christmas stocking. Until just hours ago, it was available for online purchase.

The devices, sold by an organization called HD Fury, allowed HD video to be moved around and displayed on devices that wouldn't normally be equipped to handle the content. To do that, the devices stripped out the entertainment industry's copy protection, called HDCP. The "HD Fury Integral," pictured above, is able to strip out even the newest version, HDCP 2.2, which protects Ultra HD or "4K" video content.

Stripping out that copy protection is a brazen violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, according to lawyers for Warner Brothers and Digital Content Protection (DCP), the company that licenses HDCP. Warner and DCP filed a lawsuit (PDF) on December 31 against LegendSky, the owner of HD Fury. The plaintiffs' lawyers say LegendSky is "a business or an individual located in China."

"Converting A/V signals like no others," reads the now-disabled HDFury.com website. "For the freedom beyond HDCP errors."

Update: The HDFury.com website started working again late on January 4.

HDCP is what protects digital content as it moves from devices like set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and game consoles to devices like HDTVs, which display the content.

The complaint quotes the HD Fury website, which states: "To the letter of the law (the DMCA that is), a black box that removes the HDCP encryption to allow you to use a monitor that does not support HDCP is illegal."

The lawsuit leaves out the next sentence on the HD Fury site, which argued that many digital rights advocates see stripping out copy protection in order to move it to older devices could be seen as a classic "fair use."

The Plaintiffs purchased and tested three of the HD Fury devices, including the "Integral." They confirmed the devices do strip out the HDCP protection.

"The HDFury Devices... do not re-encrypt HDCP-protected content after it is transmitted to a non-HDCP-compliant device, rendering the content 'in the clear' and therefore vulnerable to unauthorized access, copying, and redistribution," Warner Brothers lawyers write. "The HDFury Devices harm Warner Bros. because the HDFury devices make Warner Bros.’ Digital Content more vulnerable to unauthorized access, copying, distribution, and other unlawful uses."

In addition to claiming that LegendSky's products violate the DMCA, Warner Bros. claims that the company wrongly suggested the device was "associated with, approved by, or authorized by plaintiffs." They argue this constitutes a violation of the Lanham Act, which bars false advertising.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it's generally illegal to break digital locks like HDCP. The Librarian of Congress offers limited exemptions to that rule once every three years.

Several years ago, a company called RealNetworks argued in US court that it should be able to build a device that circumvented copy protection on DVDs in order to serve the "fair use market" of consumers who wanted to move legally purchased content between devices. But movie studios sued, and after a 2008 bench trial, a federal judge agreed that the RealDVD product likely violated the DMCA. It was never brought to market.

With Real having lost a major battle over "fair use" lock-breaking despite having some of Silicon Valley's best lawyers on its team, the chances of LegendSky mounting any significant legal defense seems unlikely. The company's website stopped working sometime around 11:00am Eastern Time today, and it remains offline.