Ron Schenone

Confused About DVD Copying? This Should Add To The Confusion

Posted by on Aug 13, 2009 | 4 Comments

The copying of DVD’s was hammered with two death blows delivered by two different courts. One court ruled that:

RealDVD software violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 that prohibits the circumvention of encryption technology. DVDs are encrypted with what is known as the Content Scramble System, and DVD players must secure a license to play discs. RealDVD, she ruled, circumvents technology designed to prevent copying.

In another court decision it was ruled that a hardware recording device called Kaleidescape was also illegal:

The DVD Copy Control Association, which brought the case on behalf of the motion picture studios, said the decision means that Kaleidescape cannot produce DVD-copying machines

But it gets better folks:

But the decision, although mixed, left open the door that copying DVD’s for personal use “may well be” lawful under the fair use doctrine of the Copyright Act, although trafficking in such goods was illegal.

So there you have it. It may be OK to copy DVD’s for personal use, as long as you don’t use any software or hardware to do the copying with!

Comments welcome.

Source – Kaleidescape

Source – RealDVD

  • Denny

    Thank-You

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    My pleasure birthday boy! LOL

  • Ryan Farmer

    You have fair use rights but it’s illegal to use them. (Thanks to heavy Microsoft/RIAA/MPAA lobbying)

  • Howard

    While it’s a bummer, you’re interpretation is not right – the judge said (according to cnet) the DMCA law “has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies.”
    It says nothing about being illegal to use it. Just the opposite. The judge said “it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally owned DVD on that individual’s computer”.