Ripping (your own) DVDs

[Griffolion]

Hey guys.

I'm currently on a ripping spree. No, not killing Victorian era working ladies. I'm taking my existing DVD collection of films, and ripping them to a digital form on my NAS Drive for viewing on a streaming device or copying to my phone/tablet.

My question is to you, what's your opinion's on doing this? It's not particularly encouraged by the "official" institutions governing content creation and distribution. They'd more often than not prefer you to acquire digitally through DRM using services like iTunes.

The way I see it is that what is on that disk is mine, since I bought it. It's mine to take from that disk and have in a digital form for my own use. I have no view to seeding any of the resulting files on a torrenting site. It is strictly for my own personal use, which I believe is covered under the details of the license agreement that is played on all DVD's.

What's your thoughts?

 

[antidonkey]

Well, keeping an extra copy of something you have is perfectly fine and legal. However, cracking/removing the copy protection in order to have a functioning backup is not. So long as you don't start seeding them to torrent sites, no one is going to care.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I believe it is legal as long as it is just for personal use. Breaking the copy protection is illegal but again you should be fine as long as it is for your own use. It's annoying that more dvds don't come with digital copies these days.

 

[teqrevisited]

I keep backups of my DVDs that I've made myself. I'd guess you're well within your rights to make & keep backups.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

I wouldn't be too surprised to find that there's some law somewhere saying that you can't. However, like some of the other posters have said, as long as it's just for personal use, and you're not sharing the files with anyone, I really doubt you'd run into any problems. There isn't some elite government squad that runs around looking through your hard drive for copied movies, so as long as they stay on your hard drive there's no way anyone would know you ripped them even if it were against the law.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Well, keeping an extra copy of something you have is perfectly fine and legal. However, cracking/removing the copy protection in order to have a functioning backup is not. So long as you don't start seeding them to torrent sites, no one is going to care.

This. As I understand it, it's a legal and moral grey area.

Do as you please, so long as you aren't sharing it over the internet, no one will care.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Well, keeping an extra copy of something you have is perfectly fine and legal. However, cracking/removing the copy protection in order to have a functioning backup is not. So long as you don't start seeding them to torrent sites, no one is going to care.

This. As I understand it, it's a legal and moral grey area.

Do as you please, so long as you aren't sharing it over the internet, no one will care.

Actually, it's not morally grey in the slightest: it's well within your rights. Legally it's a bit of a grey area, but only because the DMCA made it illegal to circumvent copy protection. It's long been a basic part of copyright law that it's okay to make backups for personal use. The DMCA just messed it up when it comes to DRM, and to make it more confusing, the supreme court has interpreted it to have exceptions that, strictly speaking, aren't actually in the DMCA. So legal grey area, morally A-OK.

Edit: I'll add that this is congress circa 1998 that we're talking about. This is a grey area caused by people who don't understand technology legislating it.

 

[Darkmantle]

It's not illegal to make extra copies for yourself. It only goes grey when you start handing them out to other people.

 

[evilneko]

It's my disc and I'll format shift, decrypt, rearrange, remix, re-author, burn and whatever else I want to do with it.

That's my view on it.

Usually though I just want to stick it on my shelf and forget that I have it and continue watching my fansubs. >.>

 

[Loop Stricken]

My question is to you, what's your opinion's on doing this?

It's perfectly fine. Keep on keepin' on.

It only becomes legally dubious when you start providing your copies to other people.

 

[Signa]

I don't even see this as a question. Illegal distribution is obviously a no-no, but it's your own damn disk.

I mean, if companies were selling you exactly what they say they are selling you, I.E. the rights to view what is on the disk, and not the actual movie itself, then they had better replace damaged disks, but they don't. Suddenly, it's a product again, and you broke your product so it's up to you to pay full price again for the same content.

Ripping keeps your products safe while simultaneously making viewing your content more convenient. It's a double-win for you, and a triple win if you like enraging those companies over their petty moneygrubbing policies.

 

[Griffolion]

Okay, seems I'm on the same sort of thinking lines as most other people. I have no intention of giving it away on torrent sites or other such things. It's simply for my own use, like if I'm on a long trip and I fancy a few movies on my tablet for the ride.

 

[teebeeohh]

do you know what i do with hardcover books when i take them with me to read on the train? i wrap them in newspaper so they don't get damaged. ripping your own DVDs is like that, i keep all my movies on a server(a hard drive sitting in my living room) and stream onto my TV when i want to watch them, the actual cases are locked up behind glass.

 

[CommanderL]

most of my dvds are always stored in avi file on my hard drive

 

[OneCatch]

Hey guys.

I'm currently on a ripping spree. No, not killing Victorian era working ladies. I'm taking my existing DVD collection of films, and ripping them to a digital form on my NAS Drive for viewing on a streaming device or copying to my phone/tablet.

My question is to you, what's your opinion's on doing this? It's not particularly encouraged by the "official" institutions governing content creation and distribution. They'd more often than not prefer you to acquire digitally through DRM using services like iTunes.

The way I see it is that what is on that disk is mine, since I bought it. It's mine to take from that disk and have in a digital form for my own use. I have no view to seeding any of the resulting files on a torrenting site. It is strictly for my own personal use, which I believe is covered under the details of the license agreement that is played on all DVD's.

What's your thoughts?

Cracking DVDs is illegal, but as long as you aren't putting it up for torrenting or similar, I think it's morally fine. After all, I have my itunes library, pc game saves and ebooks backed up, doing the same with films isn't really any different. As you say, you've paid for the content already.

 

[Oskuro]

Not sure about the US, but around here, copyright law provides users the right to make backup copies for personal use.

Under said law, any and all copy protection mechanisms that prevent the creation of legal backup copies can be legally broken, as it would be illegal for them to prevent you from exercising your rights*.

Remember, it doesn't matter what an EULA says, no contract can legally strip you of your rights. If the stipulations of a contract directly contradict standing law, said stipulations are automatically null and void.


Then again, I'm not a lawyer, but that's my understanding.


In any case, as long as you don't distribute, it should be fine.


*Note: Which raises the question, specially regarding online-activated products whose servers are switched off... If the copy protection mechanism prevents a user from actually using their legally obtained product, is it legal to circumvent said protection?

I'd say yes, but again, not a lawyer.

 

[NLS]

I thought this was gonna be a "Which tools, programs, codecs and bitrates should I use?"-question. Anyways, you're pretty much free to do as you own please with your own goods in your own house. People do this all the time with their music CDs and iPods, so why should it be any different with your own movies?

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Well, keeping an extra copy of something you have is perfectly fine and legal. However, cracking/removing the copy protection in order to have a functioning backup is not. So long as you don't start seeding them to torrent sites, no one is going to care.

This. As I understand it, it's a legal and moral grey area.

Do as you please, so long as you aren't sharing it over the internet, no one will care.

Actually, it's not morally grey in the slightest: it's well within your rights. Legally it's a bit of a grey area, but only because the DMCA made it illegal to circumvent copy protection. It's long been a basic part of copyright law that it's okay to make backups for personal use. The DMCA just messed it up when it comes to DRM, and to make it more confusing, the supreme court has interpreted it to have exceptions that, strictly speaking, aren't actually in the DMCA. So legal grey area, morally A-OK.

Edit: I'll add that this is congress circa 1998 that we're talking about. This is a grey area caused by people who don't understand technology legislating it.

I think the spirit of the deal is that your only suppose to have 1 copy of, for the sake simplicity we'll say a movie. The moment you rip the DVD on to your computer you now have two copys.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Well, keeping an extra copy of something you have is perfectly fine and legal. However, cracking/removing the copy protection in order to have a functioning backup is not. So long as you don't start seeding them to torrent sites, no one is going to care.

This. As I understand it, it's a legal and moral grey area.

Do as you please, so long as you aren't sharing it over the internet, no one will care.

Actually, it's not morally grey in the slightest: it's well within your rights. Legally it's a bit of a grey area, but only because the DMCA made it illegal to circumvent copy protection. It's long been a basic part of copyright law that it's okay to make backups for personal use. The DMCA just messed it up when it comes to DRM, and to make it more confusing, the supreme court has interpreted it to have exceptions that, strictly speaking, aren't actually in the DMCA. So legal grey area, morally A-OK.

Edit: I'll add that this is congress circa 1998 that we're talking about. This is a grey area caused by people who don't understand technology legislating it.

I think the spirit of the deal is that your only suppose to have 1 copy of, for the sake simplicity we'll say a movie. The moment you rip the DVD on to your computer you now have two copys.

No, that's not the spirit of the deal. It's a basic consumer right to be able to make backups for personal use, primarily because portable media, be it optical, magnetic, or even a vinyl record, is pretty fragile on the whole. It's also generally considered okay to do it in order to device shift -- recording a CD or record on a cassette tape to play it on a car stereo or walkman in the old days, ripping a CD or a DVD to play on an MP3 player today. The DMCA messes things up by saying that that's still legal, but only when copy protection isn't involved. Because Congress is run by a bunch of old men who don't use computers, and they were even less knowledgeable about this stuff in 1998 than they are now.