http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5128652-1.html
The review above isn't necessarily valid legal advice, but I think it explains how the DMCA is causing problems with the traditional understanding of fair use. http://dvd-copy-review.upickreviews.com/is-copying-dvds-legal.html Another site to look at on this issue. I think it is ridiculous to have a law protecting CSS encryption. The point of CSS encryption is to stop pirating, but it will also stop legitimate copying. Fair use doesn't mean you can give copies away or sell copies, but it does allow you to make copies. http://www.winxdvd.com/resource/rip-copy-protected-dvd.htm Maybe this third link is to a company selling illegal software. What they say leans heavily though on the fair use concept. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping Interesting, don't know how to rate this though. What concerns me is that the DMCA makes circumvention of copy protection schemes apparently illegal. Trouble is, how can one fairly circumvent the schemes for making legal personal use copies if it is illegal for anyone to give you information on how to do this? If my understanding is correct, the DMCA should be amended. Maybe it should be permissible to have a third party defeat the encryption to give you one personal use only DVD without the encryption. Or, maybe the information to defeat the encryption should be legal to share. Another option, make encrypted media sold to the public at large illegal. http://www.pcworld.com/article/119549/dvd_ripping_flourishes.html This fourth link is to what seems to be a good article on DVD ripping. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/judge-copying-dvds-is-illegal/ I agree with the notion that Hollywood is crippling technology and that this is the wrong way to address losing money on DVDs, VHS, and Blu Ray discs. I want to ignore the whole cannot acquire or share copy protection circumvention tools. Otherwise, I can't play these legitimately purchased movies off of a computer hard drive. The problem is definitely that the law is unclear and completely inconsistent. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
