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.

Comments

Quite fair

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite fair, since the movie companies are too lazy to sell the movies in handheld-friendly files. Rip away!

Re:Quite fair

[gfxguy]

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.

I've been ripping movies to my laptop...

[Anonymous Coward]

... for a while. Until somebody solves the issue of my DVD drive draining my battery I don't have much choice. I own all the DVDs I watch, I always saw it as simply migrating the media. Maybe I'm going straight to prison.

Re:I've been ripping movies to my laptop...

[MartinG]

copyright infringement is a civil matter, but circumventing a technical protection measure is a criminal matter in the US. CSS is a technical protection measure. This is basic DMCA stuff.

one more nail in the coffin

[Anonymous Coward]

This is going to destroy the movie industry. Before you know it people are going to want to watch the same movie multiple times and only pay once. Think about the poor starving actors sweltering on the city streets this summer while you're sitting around sipping iced tea and watching your pirated movies at the beach this summer you smug fucks.

Re:one more nail in the coffin

[3terrabyte]

Actually, if they keep making DVD titles with unskippable previews, then I will make DIVX of every DVD I buy. Or just rent and then rip.

I'm sick of being forced through commercials of DVD's i already paid for. EVERY time I want to watch it. And I hate the commercials about the soundtrack that show parts of the movie. I DONT want spoilers before I even get a chance to see the movie.

Re:one more nail in the coffin

[Total_Wimp]

I especially love watching a DVD that's a couple of years old and it has ads for some product that isn't even available anymore. Like a limited release Disney title or a theater release of a long-gone flick. Now you're stuck watching the ad AND YOU CAN'T EVEN BUY THE PRODUCT.

I think they should stop worrying about gay marriage and start ammending the constitution with some basic consumer protections. Now that's something you'll get a 75% vote for.

TW

Fair Use?

[physicsboy500]

If you legally own the DVD why would this not be fair use? It's your DVD so you can keep a backup copy of the information and that would be the copy.

Re:Fair Use?

[chilled]

Whilst I agree with you, I have a sneaking suspicion that the MPAA doesn't. It's still illegal to rip your own CD's to MP3 format in the UK, even though I consider it "fair use". Unfortunately, fair use doesn't mean what Joe Punter (you and I) think it means. It means whatever the copyright holder or pigopolists want it to mean.
I think there's a direct comparison with ripping MP3's for personal use to be drawn here. If it is fair use to do this in the US, why isn't it for DVD's?

Re:different how?

[DarkMagician07]

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.

Excelent use of the PDA

[Cr3d3nd0]

When I initially puchased my Ipaq, I planned on using it for Organizing my contacts appointments etc (bs I wanted a fancy GBA and I know it) I have found though that the primary uses I have for my Ipaq is for wathing episodes of some of my favorite shows (when ripped properly a movie tends to look pretty decent, at least enough to be able to enjoy an episode or two of my favorite shows at lunch) and suprisingly enough reading. The screen is just the right brightness that I harldy ever read a physical book anymore. The vast majority of books are available somewhere out there in ebook form, and there's nothing like the ability to read at night without a fancy booklight while the wife is asleep. To be honest the only game I've spent any signifigant time playing is Nethack, whose free PPC version is quite enjoyable. Oh and it keeps my bookwork and appoints too... yeah thats it.

Same old argument, once again

[sremick]

Same story, different day. It basically boils down to: what am I actually buying when I buy a CD/DVD/software/etc?

If I'm buying PHYSICAL PROPERTY, I can do whatever I want with it, including resell it once I'm done with it (something the software companies like to say we can't do). I should also be able to play the music/movie for anyone I wish, and let anyone I wish use the software.

If I'm buying a LICENSE, then I should be able to use my one LICENSE however I wish, independent of the media. If I'm getting a license to listen to the song, I should be able to transfer that song to another device so I can listen to it there too. I've paid the license... I'm allowed to listen. Same applies to movies.

Companies are trying to have it both ways, and refuse to pick which one it really is.

Note that one of the big issues the RIAA had was that digital media could be copied EXACTLY. They didn't have a problem with CD->tape apparently because the copy was degraded. Well guess what? When I make an MP3/OGG file, that's lossy compression... therefore the copy is also "degraded". Same goes if you mega-compress a DVD to fit on a 320x480 screen and a tiny 512MB SD card (I'm a Palm T3 owner).

I can understand that if I pay $5 for the VHS version, I might not be entitled to a license for the $30 SuperBit DVD version as well... but if I buy the DVD I sure as hell can make a VHS copy if I want to watch it at a friend's house who doesn't have a DVD player, or if I need to distill it down to fit on my PDA so I can watch it on the plane. Bite me, MPAA.

Re:What's the difference between this and music?

[FuzzyShrimp]

What's the difference between 100 people looking at a ripped DVD and 100 people reading the same paper book over and over... Wait a minute! That's what happens at a Government run Library. Poor authors. They get to sell only one copy of the book and hundreds get to read it. What's fair about that?

Wait a minute ...

[Dlugar]

So if the movie companies did sell low-resolution copies of their movies (fully DRM'd, of course) for handhelds, for say $4 a movie, then it would somehow no longer be fair use to copy our DVDs to our handhelds? It would be illegal to do so (under the DMCA) and we should have to fork out an additional $4, on top of whatever we paid for the DVD, in order to watch it on a Palm or Zaurus?!

That's bullsh**.

Dlugar

Re:I can see the benifits.

[budhaboy]

I do it for all of my movies... most especially those that my two year old son watches. Why? 1) I can edit out the constant ads for yet more videos he doesn't need 2) As I've got an internal LAN and share the movies throughout the house I don't have to go looking for a DVD whereever he may be inclined to watch it. 3) I don't have to fight with him about not touching the DVD until after he's washed the peanut butter off his hands 4) I can copy several to my laptop when we roadtrip.

zaurus r0xit.

[torpor]

the zaurus is the under-the-radar linux product of the last 2 years. it freakin' rocks in so many ways, i can't even handle it.

a complete unix workstation, in your pocket. whatever you can do in linux, you can now do on the sl5500/c860's. its a 64-meg ram workstation with storage (get a nuvo 4gig CF disk, for example), and you've got yourself a computer you won't feel the need to 'upgrade' for at least a few more years. rip dvd's to your CF disk, watch them in landscape mode, set up a private subnet, web server and bittorrent feed over WLAN at your next 2600 meeting, whatever you like.

pocketized, portable, a complete linux.

what is it now, 8 different distro's for the zaurus, including pocketworkstation and gentoo, and its still going strong? oh, and hey, don't forget the openembedded distro-builder kit for pda's ...

zaurus freakin' rocks. cult linux item.