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Legal DVD ripping

TheLonelyPhoenix

TheLonelyPhoenix

Diamond Member
This doesn't fall very neatly in any of the other forums, so I thought I'd post it here. Hopefully a mod will move it if it belongs somewhere else.

Is there any legal way to rip a DVD, like you can with audio CDs?
 
'Spose it depends on the DVD and who you are. I just ripped another four DVDs this morning, all of them legally.
 
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
Click to expand...

I thought you were allowed to back them up, but the means of backing them up are illegal because you're breaking copy protection in the process.
 
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
Click to expand...

I thought you were allowed to back them up, but the means of backing them up are illegal because you're breaking copy protection in the process.
Click to expand...

The DMCA is crap, I don't pay attention to it anymore.
 
It's a grey area legally, but ethically I see nothing wrong with backing up DVDs you own, and I do it myself. DVDDecrypter should do the trick to get the .vob's on your hard drive, from there you can burn a copy if you have a DVD burner, or if you're living in the stone age like me and only have a CD burner, you can compress the video (takes a while) so that it fits on one.
 
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
Click to expand...

I thought you were allowed to back them up, but the means of backing them up are illegal because you're breaking copy protection in the process.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I thought was the case. Any utility I've heard of which could directly rip a DVD breaks the copy protection and is thus illegal in the United States.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
Click to expand...

I thought you were allowed to back them up, but the means of backing them up are illegal because you're breaking copy protection in the process.
Click to expand...

The DMCA is crap, I don't pay attention to it anymore.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, it's BS, but unfortunately it's the law 🙁
 
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
Click to expand...

I thought you were allowed to back them up, but the means of backing them up are illegal because you're breaking copy protection in the process.
Click to expand...

The DMCA is crap, I don't pay attention to it anymore.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, it's BS, but unfortunately it's the law 🙁
Click to expand...

Civil disobedience.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: mwtgg
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Yes. DVD shrink.

Fair use allows you to do it for backups, as long as we can get the government out of MPAA pockets.
Click to expand...

I thought you were allowed to back them up, but the means of backing them up are illegal because you're breaking copy protection in the process.
Click to expand...

The DMCA is crap, I don't pay attention to it anymore.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, it's BS, but unfortunately it's the law 🙁
Click to expand...

Civil disobedience.
Click to expand...

Well, I never said I agreed with the law, heck I already got one DMCA letter. 😀
 
Originally posted by: acid45
I allways though you could back them up, just not sell them or anything.

hrmm.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is still the case.

However, although its legal to make backups for your own use, it is illegal to circumvent copy protection on a DVD. I believe the justification they used was that a VHS tape could only be copied a couple times before the quality degraded significantly, whereas a DVD can be copied endlessly with virtually no quality loss.

Its sort of a Catch-22... its not expressly illegal to copy a disc, but all the methods of doing it are illegal. 😕

I suppose you could get creative with a TV tuner card and DVD player, but I mean, come on. Might as well just try and take 20 screenshots a second at that point, you'll probably get better quality and a smaller file.

Basically, I'm asking if there's a legal, digital, quality way to do it.
 
Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
Originally posted by: acid45
I allways though you could back them up, just not sell them or anything.

hrmm.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is still the case.

However, although its legal to make backups for your own use, it is illegal to circumvent copy protection on a DVD. I believe the justification they used was that a VHS tape could only be copied a couple times before the quality degraded significantly, whereas a DVD can be copied endlessly with virtually no quality loss.

Its sort of a Catch-22... its not expressly illegal to copy a disc, but all the methods of doing it are illegal. 😕

I suppose you could get creative with a TV tuner card and DVD player, but I mean, come on. Might as well just try and take 20 screenshots a second at that point, you'll probably get better quality and a smaller file.

Basically, I'm asking if there's a legal, digital, quality way to do it.
Click to expand...

As of 6 or so years ago, VHS tapes were encoded with a certain form of copyright protection, had to do with creating a certain frequency that confused the write head of the dubbing component.
 
As far as I'm concerned, if I own the DVD, its my right to rip it. Usually, I rip most DVDs I own that I consider really good movies so I can store them on my hdd without having to pop in the DVD everytime I want to watch it. I've got about 30 DVDs, all of which I own legal copies of, stored on my external storage drive in Divx5 and XivD format.

Yes, according to the DMCA, its legal to backup, but any program that breaks the copy protection is illegal. fvck'em.
 
Originally posted by: mobobuff
Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
Originally posted by: acid45
I allways though you could back them up, just not sell them or anything.

hrmm.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is still the case.

However, although its legal to make backups for your own use, it is illegal to circumvent copy protection on a DVD. I believe the justification they used was that a VHS tape could only be copied a couple times before the quality degraded significantly, whereas a DVD can be copied endlessly with virtually no quality loss.

Its sort of a Catch-22... its not expressly illegal to copy a disc, but all the methods of doing it are illegal. 😕

I suppose you could get creative with a TV tuner card and DVD player, but I mean, come on. Might as well just try and take 20 screenshots a second at that point, you'll probably get better quality and a smaller file.

Basically, I'm asking if there's a legal, digital, quality way to do it.
Click to expand...

As of 6 or so years ago, VHS tapes were encoded with a certain form of copyright protection, had to do with creating a certain frequency that confused the write head of the dubbing component.
Click to expand...

Macrovision?
 
Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
why don't you just use a DVD burner? no encryption circumvention there.
Click to expand...

I'd prefer to have them on HD instead of playing disc-jockey with my DVD collection when I'm looking through my movies. Under fair use, that shouldn't be a problem... I bought them and they're mine to browse through as I see fit.
 
Fair use makes it legal to make a backup copy, which requires breaking the encryption and ripping...
DMCA makes it illegal.
 
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