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DVD-copying software is illegal
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Re: DVD-copying software is illegal
The Windows community still have plenty of (and far better IMO than DVDXCopy) options for "backing up" their DVD's.
What I'm annoyied about is that the fact they stopped suing the guy who used DeCSS...
They gave up, and said it wasn't a 'trade secret' anymore.
Yet people are still getting screwed over by using it...
What logic is that?
'You can make personal copys, BUT you can't use ANY method of backing them up'
I bet they are laughing so hard right now...
They gave up, and said it wasn't a 'trade secret' anymore.
Yet people are still getting screwed over by using it...
What logic is that?
'You can make personal copys, BUT you can't use ANY method of backing them up'
I bet they are laughing so hard right now...
IIRC The "BetaMax case" and the "Home Recording Act" are what gave consumers the rights to do things like tape things off TV and copy media from one format to another. Then the DMCA was passed and that made breaking/working around copy protection illegal. So, technically, we can still make copies and what not, but we just can't make copies of things that have copy protection. Which in reality means we, consumers, are screwed. I was hopping that when these conflicting laws ran head on into each other the courts would side w/the consumers but that doesn't seem to be the case in this situation.
Lethal
But if you use a tool that doesn't break through copyright protection crap, but instead works around it, like DVD Backup does, it's still legal, well, depending on whether you actually do own it or not...
DVDs have no copy protection AFAIK, just playback protection (so that only allowed -licensed and right region- DVD players can play it). It is illegal to break copyright systems, which in DVDs AFAIK are only region codes and CSS playback protection. As long as you do not remove the region setting and do not DeCSS the contents, you will still have a perfectly legal and playable copy (IF it fits in a DVD-5). I think DVDBackup let's you choose wether you want to tincker with those protections or not. But that makes your legally bought movies only playable on DVD. No more transcoding allowed (since it requires decoding the video, hence, DeCCSing).
What DVD Backup does, is get the information necessary for decrypting the information from DVD Player, which is why it doesn't work unless you run DVD Player first for a bit. You can also choose what region you want the new VIDEO_TS folder to be. Whether that is legal or not, I don't know, and I don't care.
Fair use law
As LethalWolfe notes, the movie industry and the RIAA have spent tons of money trying to make sure that consumers couldn't use modern technology to take advantage of the perfectly legal and acceptable fair use law.
The precedent setting case was Disney et al versus Sony in the aforementioned Betamax case, and we know who lost don't we
Since then they've tried all sorts of shenanigans to *right*, what they see as an enormous *wrong* to them and their bottom line.
They finally succeeded with the Digital Millenium Copyrights Act, which basically screwed consumers and their rights under fair use law.
There's no question that congress will eventually have to step in to sort out this mess, as I'm sure that most congressmen/senators had absolutely no idea exactly what they were getting into when they passed this hodge podge of badly written, ill conceived and blatantly unfair laws which only consider the companies rights, while totally ignoring their bread and butter consumers. Prefering to treat them like criminals instead.
Not that some consumers don't make illegal copies of CD's and DVD's, but the bulk of the studios losses is obviously due to the professional stealing and pirating of copyrighted material overseas.
Come on now, copies of major movies are for sale at a buck a piece on the streets of Hong Kong, weeks before the movies official release date. But I don't see Jack Valenti and ilk enlisting the FBI and the CIA to raid these professional pirates in Hong Kong, China etc to put an end to their thievery. And certainly not with the same zeal and en masse like they do to 15 year olds over here!!!
If you ask me, 12 year old kids and the occasional adult illegally copying a CD or DVD doesn't cost them a miniscule fraction compared to what these big time pros do.
Here's an excellent link for those who want to find out a little bit more exactly what their fair use rights are....
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
As LethalWolfe notes, the movie industry and the RIAA have spent tons of money trying to make sure that consumers couldn't use modern technology to take advantage of the perfectly legal and acceptable fair use law.
The precedent setting case was Disney et al versus Sony in the aforementioned Betamax case, and we know who lost don't we
Since then they've tried all sorts of shenanigans to *right*, what they see as an enormous *wrong* to them and their bottom line.
They finally succeeded with the Digital Millenium Copyrights Act, which basically screwed consumers and their rights under fair use law.
There's no question that congress will eventually have to step in to sort out this mess, as I'm sure that most congressmen/senators had absolutely no idea exactly what they were getting into when they passed this hodge podge of badly written, ill conceived and blatantly unfair laws which only consider the companies rights, while totally ignoring their bread and butter consumers. Prefering to treat them like criminals instead.
Not that some consumers don't make illegal copies of CD's and DVD's, but the bulk of the studios losses is obviously due to the professional stealing and pirating of copyrighted material overseas.
Come on now, copies of major movies are for sale at a buck a piece on the streets of Hong Kong, weeks before the movies official release date. But I don't see Jack Valenti and ilk enlisting the FBI and the CIA to raid these professional pirates in Hong Kong, China etc to put an end to their thievery. And certainly not with the same zeal and en masse like they do to 15 year olds over here!!!
If you ask me, 12 year old kids and the occasional adult illegally copying a CD or DVD doesn't cost them a miniscule fraction compared to what these big time pros do.
Here's an excellent link for those who want to find out a little bit more exactly what their fair use rights are....
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
DVD X Copy isn't really that great of a program anyways.
I just use DVD Shrink for everything now, DVD SHhrink works much better, and the best part is that it is FREE!
*EDIT: I do think that we should be able to make copies of DVDs for our own use if we wish.
Just because some puts some stupid encryption on it doesn't mean we can't copy it, they better over turn these DMCA restrictions before we have to pay by the week to own a DVD or worse.
I just use DVD Shrink for everything now, DVD SHhrink works much better, and the best part is that it is FREE!
*EDIT: I do think that we should be able to make copies of DVDs for our own use if we wish.
Just because some puts some stupid encryption on it doesn't mean we can't copy it, they better over turn these DMCA restrictions before we have to pay by the week to own a DVD or worse.
Yeah I haved followed the whole situation for a while now...
The MPAA really shafted consumers on this one...
I really thought we won after they said CSS wasn't a trade secret and said we could use DeCSS to break it, alas they lost the battle but continue to win the war.
Arg.
In this situation I'm more dissapointed in the courts than I am mad at the movie studios. I mean, it's expected for companies to protect their revenue flow, but it's also expected for the courts to keep companies from making an end-run around the rights of the people.
absolut_mac, pirating in China has been a big deal for a while now. Here is a CNN article from '96 talking about the US threatening trade sactions against China if China didn't crack down on piracy. But there is only so much one country can do to influence another countrie's domestic policies. Piracy in China has run rampant for so long, and has become such a big business, that there is no putting that genie back in the bottle. China is probably the "dooms day" scenario that gives record companies, movie studio's, and game makers nightmares. I can just imagine someone looking at China's piracy and going "Holy crap! What if that happens in the US?!"
I do agree though that the current law makers lack of familarity w/technology has made them easy targets for those lobbying techno-based agendas.
Lethal
css
from my understanding
Hollywood lost the css or decss battle in the norwegin courts againt the guy who cracked and first publicly published the code.
Hollywood never proceeded in courts in the US yet, this 321 company is the first that I know of, that has actually been started. I think this case actually started over a year ago.
The DMCA did not override free speech in Norwegin courts, but it may do so in US courts.
from my understanding
Hollywood lost the css or decss battle in the norwegin courts againt the guy who cracked and first publicly published the code.
Hollywood never proceeded in courts in the US yet, this 321 company is the first that I know of, that has actually been started. I think this case actually started over a year ago.
The DMCA did not override free speech in Norwegin courts, but it may do so in US courts.
Re: css
You have that alright.
But by saying that CSS is no a trade secret it shouldn't be a DMCA case.
If its not a secret I don't see why we can't crack it.
Gah...
People are still gonna use DeCSS for yyearrs to come.
You have that alright.
But by saying that CSS is no a trade secret it shouldn't be a DMCA case.
If its not a secret I don't see why we can't crack it.
Gah...
People are still gonna use DeCSS for yyearrs to come.