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Ripping DVDs to Handhelds = Fair Use?
An anonymous reader sent us a "CNET column highlights DVD to Pocket PC, a US$25 software package that allows users to rip DVDs for viewing on Windows handhelds. The story details the hoops that Amsterdam-based Makayama is jumping through to comply with "fair use" as [narrowly] defined by U.S. law.
Because ripping a CD doesn't require that you break any encryption. Because DVD's use CSS for encrypting the data that is on them, you cannot legally break that copy protection under the DMCA. CD's don't have that luxury as there is nothing encrypted on the disc.
Here are some links to free movies for PDAs, especially Linux PDAs, like the SHARP Zaurus Linux PDAs. There are also tips and tricks how to resize and convert movies to fit to PDAs.
The problem isn't people doing it for themselves. Without violating the 4th amendment it would be impossible to know who was ripping DVDs and who wasn't. Besides, copyright law allows you to make all the copies you want in the privacy of your own home (some lawyer can correct me, but that's my reading of Title 17).
;)
The problem is making and selling tools that allow people to do this. These tools may violate the DMCA and stuff. Look at the mess surrounding DeCSS. Here we have the maker of the tool being acquitted in Norway, but aren't the U.S. lawsuits against groups like 2600 still ongoing?
And as for criminal vs. civil, who cares? Your life will probably be easier if it's a criminal offense. Civil trials have a lower standard of proof and could be very expensive in terms of damage awards. At least if you go to prison you get free room and board for the duration.
I do not have a signature
I doubt you would actually be sued for a fair-use case. The people who are making software that allows them to circumvent copy protection are being cracked down on, but I've yet to see anyone who has actually been using their software being implicated yet.
Take DVD X-Copy for example. Court ruled that they had to stop producing it, but did not go after who bought it.
The fact is, any case that is brought that is actually fair use, the MPAA will lose. It's only by going against the people upstream that they can really win.
--etrnl--
Dont know how many here knows what happens behind the scenes when you rip any Disc (and if I am talking out of my ass, please correct me).
Every CSS encrypted disc contains the key, which when the DVD Player encounters encrypted content, looks for and finds to decrypt the content at runtime.
Now when we rip the DVD to make a copy (for piracy or for fair use), the tool uses the key to decrypt the media and dumps the decrypted media to our hard drive, but not the key. Then we go ahead and burn it to any standard DVD+/-R Disc. Understand that any standard DVD-R/DVD+R disc you buy from the store is similar to the DVD that came with the original movie, except for one - the part where the encrypted key will reside cannot be burned on to. Which means, if you were to try and make a One to One copy of the movie disc, you will be able to write the encrypted media on to the new Disc, but the DVD writer would not be able to write the key on to the new Disc, since that part is not writeable (dont know why, but thats how it is).
So essentially, we are not making a one to one copy of the movie. We decrypt the media and write the decrypted media on to the second disc and throws away the CSS key. Now our DVD Player finds decrypted media and has no need for a key, so merrily goes along and plays the content.
I am all for Fair Use, and I hate RIAA more than I hate MPAA (because of the prices). But when we rip a DVD for Fair use and claim that its a One to One copy, thats not necessarily true (or hold up in court) since they can always argue that the Key is not copied over as well as the media is decrypted as well. IANAL, but wouldnt that hold merit in the legal system?
Rapid Nirvana
17 USC 506 covers criminal liability for copyright infringement. 17 USC 1204 covers criminal liability for circumvention.
They are both civil and criminal matters, and you could go to prison.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Actually you already do have free and clear permission to copy all your legal DVDs to VHS, you have had this right for quite some time.
The problem is that DVDs are often encoded with Macrovision. So while you do have the right, the content providers aren't required to make it easy.
It is NOT illegal to own a region free, macrovision filtered, DVD player. I have one myself, and the VHS dubs are generally superior to buying a prerecorded tape (if you use good tape and SP recording instead of cheaping out with longer recording times).
The argument is and always has been between buying media and buying content. If you have simply purchased media that has something recorded on it already, you can do whatever you want with it. So the industry claims you are not purchasing media, but are purchasing the right to view the content, you just happen to be purchasing that on in given media format.
If you've purchased the right to use the content, you should be able to use that content wherever you want - rooms without DVD players, the VHS system in your car, etc.... this certainly applies to handhelds and other computing devices.
The sticky situation comes in because the DMCA includes those pesky provisions that make it illegal to circumvent copy protection, even when you can prove you are doing for legitimate purposes. It's basically large content providers banding together to find a way to circumvent fair use provisions of copyright law.
Thank Bill Clinton and Fritz Hollings (D-Disney), and all the other politicians who helped make this possible.
Stupid sexy Flanders.