UK To Finally Legalize Ripping CDs and DVDs

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UK To Finally Legalize Ripping CDs and DVDs

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 29, 2014 @07:46AM from the only-20-years-too-late dept.

An anonymous reader writes with news that the U.K. government will finally legalize the copying of data from CDs, DVDs, and other types of media for personal use. This will allow U.K. citizens to legally make backups and digital copies of their media, which has been forbidden by copyright law previously. The changes will go into effect this June. It also grants permission for people to upload the ripped media to a remote host, though sharing of course remains illegal. "The mismatch between the law and public opinion became apparent through a Government-commissioned survey, which found that 85% of consumers already thought that DVD and CD ripping was legal. More than one-third of all consumers admitted that they’d already made copies of media they purchased. Besides the new private copying rights, the upcoming amendments will also broaden people’s fair use rights. For example, people no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized."

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Finally by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 07:52 · Score: 5, Funny

... I can rip my music CDs and play them on my Diamond Rio MP3 player.
1. Re: Finally by Atl+Rob · 2014-03-29 08:37 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It's not like it wasn't happening already for personal use. It was un-enforceable on a personal level anyway. Nice to see some common sense in laws for a change. The industry has been continually shooting themselves in the foot by not embracing new tech in a consumer friendly way.
2. Re:Finally by someone1234 · 2014-03-29 18:04 · Score: 2
  
  Take care, unsanctioned public broadcasts are still prohibited. So, tune it down :D
  
  --
  Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
Grrr... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 07:54 · Score: 5, Funny

But what about those of us who want to rip Betamax, Casettes, Grammerphone Records and VHS?
1. Re:Grrr... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 08:20 · Score: 0
  
  Sorry no can do unless you want to spend some time on the sing-sing.
2. Re:Grrr... by Guy+Harris · 2014-03-29 08:44 · Score: 1
  
  But what about those of us who want to rip Betamax, Casettes, Grammerphone Records and VHS?
  Hell, what about Edison Cylinders?
3. Re:Grrr... by Samantha+Wright · 2014-03-29 08:47 · Score: 1
  
  ...wouldn't those all be out of copyright by now, regardless of country?
  
  --
  Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
4. Re: Grrr... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 08:54 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Out of copyright? Copyright ends as soon as Chernobyl is no longer radioactive, which we estimate is 10,000 years.
5. Re:Grrr... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 09:47 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  No that is why Walt Disney is in a cryronics pod - lifetime plus 70 years == to infinity and beyond
6. Re:Grrr... by jez9999 · 2014-03-30 05:07 · Score: 1
  
  The last one of those was destroyed some time ago.
  
  --
  == Jez ==
  Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
That didn't take long. by _Shorty-dammit · 2014-03-29 07:55 · Score: 2, Insightful

But what about cassettes?
1. Re:That didn't take long. by tqk · 2014-03-29 09:07 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  Hahaha disregard that, I ...
  Ever heard of Debbie Brill? Six time world champion women's high jump, co-creator of the "Fosbury Flop", the style now used by all world class high jumpers. She still holds the over fifty women's world title, so she's still doin' it. She's from Mission, BC.
  Always liked that girl.
  
  --
  "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
What about copy protection. by leuk_he · 2014-03-29 07:59 · Score: 4, Interesting

DVD are still mostly copy protected by the highly ineffective CCS copy protection. blue ray are more effectively protected, but the protection still is breakable by a lot of tools.
by european law is decided:
"the following anti-circumventing rules were implemented in European Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of May 22, 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.
This directive states in article 6, 'Obligations as to technological measures':
Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the circumvention of any effective technological measures, which the person concerned carries out in the knowledge, or with reasonable grounds to know, that he or she is pursuing that objective.
"
So you may copy it, but if you break ANY technlogical measure, you an still be sued by the content mafia fpr breaking copy protection technology. So think twice before you make a guide on your homepage how to copy a dvd.
1. Re:What about copy protection. by ledow · 2014-03-29 08:07 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Sorry, but CSS isn't a copy protection technology of any kind. It's easily defeated within a matter of seconds on any modern PC. Legally, sure, but then if you're allowed to make an archive copy, that's your legal "right" and the industry would have to take you to court to decide which wins, and it will be expensive and (potentially) catastrophic for them to try it.
  What pisses me off ten times more is the "unreadable sectors" copy protection. It means that I've never watched a DVD on my laptop as all the ones I've tried have that shit and even with properly licensed DVD playing software and a DVD compliant drive, I can't watch it.
  So what do I do? I run it through one of the programs that just sucks the data off and ignore the errors, which leaves me with only "CSS" to defeat and half the time it's not worth the bother - leave it on, let the player worry about it and 99% of the time I only ever play from European region anyway so it doesn't hinder things to use something set in European region for CSS decryption.
  To be honest the things that piss me off go in the order:
  - Unreadable sectors
  - Blocked UOPS
  - Too much shit on the beginning of the movie (sometimes MINUTES before you can even get to the main menu).
  - The law about making a backup of a product I have in my hands for my own, personal, reasonable usage (so I don't wear my discs out and have easy access to the content).
  - CSS
2. Re:What about copy protection. by Z34107 · 2014-03-29 08:21 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You should stop giving them money. Besides the inherent silliness in paying for a product you know to be broken, you're also financing the next ACTA or TPP.
  Buying DVDs is donating to the Taliban of copyright law.
  
  --
  DATABASE WOW WOW
3. Re:What about copy protection. by Flymo2 · 2014-03-29 08:55 · Score: 1
  
  It means that I've never watched a DVD on my laptop as all the ones I've tried have that shit and even with properly licensed DVD playing software and a DVD compliant drive, I can't watch it.
  I've never had a problem watching a DVD on a Mac. Not trolling, but there you are.
4. Re:What about copy protection. by symbolset · 2014-03-29 09:43 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  If you can break it then it isn't effective and breaking it is therefore legal, eh?
  
  --
  Help stamp out iliturcy.
5. Re:What about copy protection. by tqk · 2014-03-29 10:05 · Score: 2
  
  I've never had a problem watching a DVD on a Mac.
  What happens when a buddy from EU sends you a disk of EU region code?
  
  --
  "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
6. Re:What about copy protection. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 10:25 · Score: 0
  
  What happens when a buddy from EU sends you a disk of EU region code?
  Uh, nice straw man. Why/when would that ever happen?
7. Re:What about copy protection. by queazocotal · 2014-03-29 10:28 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  By this exact same argument, many house-locks deployed are not 'security', and breaking them is therefore not a crime.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?... - I recommend.
  A feature being ineffectual generally does not mean that it's not relevant, unless the law specifically says that the feature must be effective against skilled attackers.
8. Re:What about copy protection. by cyber-vandal · 2014-03-29 10:33 · Score: 1
  
  If I break into my own house it's not a crime.
9. Re:What about copy protection. by martinschrder · 2014-03-29 10:56 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, but CSS isn't a copy protection technology of any kind.
  Legally it is a copy protection technology which you are not allowed to circumvent.
10. Re:What about copy protection. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 11:11 · Score: 1
  
  Including the Mac's that dont have DVD players because Jobs sees the future without physical media?
11. Re:What about copy protection. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 11:13 · Score: 0
  
  Perhaps you want to watch a show like "Shameless" which in the US came out in 2012 while the same show was available in the UK since 2005?
  Season 1 from the US is line-for-line as the UK version. Same was true for "the Office".
12. Re:What about copy protection. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 12:27 · Score: 0
  
  Sorry, but CSS isn't a copy protection technology of any kind.
  Legally it is a copy protection technology which you are not allowed to circumvent.
  Practically however it's a playback protection. Copying is no problem.
13. Re:What about copy protection. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 18:07 · Score: 0
  
  Yep, as it says in the helpful consumer guide (http://www.scribd.com/doc/215022716)
  "Media such as DVDs are often protected by anti-copying technology to guard against copyright piracy, and this is protected by law. Copyright owners will still be able to apply this protection. However, if copy protection is too restrictive, you may raise a complaint with the Secretary of State."
14. Re:What about copy protection. by FireFury03 · 2014-03-29 20:51 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  DVD are still mostly copy protected by the highly ineffective CCS copy protection. blue ray are more effectively protected, but the protection still is breakable by a lot of tools.
  I believe that EU courts have declared CSS to not be "effective copy protection", so it is legally breakable.
  However, this new legislation does seem fairly worthless because the "consumer guide" that the government has released says that you still don't have the right to break DRM in order to exercise your new right to copy CDs/DVDs/ebooks/etc.
  To be honest, I'm surprised how widely the population has accepted ebooks, given how restrictive the licensing terms and DRM are. For example, if you buy a paper book, you can read it, then your wife can read it, you can lend it to a friend/relative to read, then it can sit on your book shelf for 20 years until your kids read it. All of this stuff has been considered "normal" usage for a book - people expect to be able to do this stuff and it seems reasonable to them. Now compare to an ebook - lets take a Google Play book as an example: you "buy" it and you can read it. Then when your wife wants to read it, she has to buy her own copy. You can't lend it to a friend - they have to buy their own too. In 20 years time, your kids will have to buy their own copies (although I have serious doubts that you will still be able to get at your purchased ebooks by that time anyway). There is no mechanism within Play to let you lend books to friends or family and the licence even prevents you from letting someone else read it on your own tablet. To me, all this seems completely unreasonable and I'm really surprised that everyone else doesn't think so to, given that all this stuff has been accepted practice for hundreds of years. Of course, you can choose to strip the DRM and/or break the licence terms, but to my mind what's the point in paying for the content in the first place if you're going to be forced into breaking the law anyway?
  
  --
  http://blog.nexusuk.org
15. Re:What about copy protection. by TheRaven64 · 2014-03-29 22:54 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The new law actually takes this into account. If you buy something in a format with 'digital locks' that prevent format shifting, you may write to the Secretary of State for permission to break the locks. This will be granted, unless the same item is available in a format without digital locks. The upshot of this is that if you sell DRM-free media in the UK, then you can force people to buy a second copy to format shift (but only once), but if you don't then they can format shift whatever encumbered format they want.
  This means that breaking DRM is explicitly legal in the UK, unless the same media is available without DRM (in which case there's little reason to bother breaking the DRM - you could just buy it in a more friendly format). I'm really looking forward to the Secretary of State receiving thousands of letters a day from people asking to rip their DVDs. Don't forget: you can send one letter per DVD you own...
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
16. Re:What about copy protection. by Roger+Lindsjo · 2014-03-30 03:11 · Score: 1
  
  In the UK that would be fine as they also use the same region as the rest of EU (2). Now, if a buddy from US sent one, then that could cause a problem.
17. Re:What about copy protection. by tqk · 2014-03-30 08:51 · Score: 1
  
  In the UK that would be fine as they also use the same region as the rest of EU (2). Now, if a buddy from US sent one ...
  Finally, someone who can read. :-) Hi.
  Yeah, see I've got this bud currently across the pond don't ya know, and I get all this BBC, GDR, Kiev burned ... in my physical mailbox (!!!) and a dvd player <might> play it (dependent upon moi).
  
  --
  "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
18. Re:What about copy protection. by delt0r · 2014-03-30 22:34 · Score: 1
  
  I travel a lot. I don't watch DVD much anymore. But i have 3 different zones in my collection. Its not uncommon for people to have at least 2 zones. Where they are from and where they currently live.
  
  --
  If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
19. Re:What about copy protection. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-31 00:27 · Score: 0
  
  This is ... not legal advice. There are several factual errors in this analysis.
  Firstly you don't write to the Secretary of State for "permission to break the locks". You write to him to complain about the locks, and then he has the power to require the lock owner give you a method to make a copy for personal use, which he is under no obligation whatsoever to exercise.
  Secondly it does not mean that breaking DRM is explicitly legal in the UK, not whatsoever. The circumvention requirements of ACTA still apply, and this is made abundantly clear in all the DoI literature on the subject, which you should read.
  The actual legislation is here.
  I'm really looking forward to the Secretary of State receiving thousands of letters a day from people asking to rip their DVDs
  Yes, if everyone was this childish then the system would collapse and we'd go back to not having fair-use rights. I'm not sure what the benefit of this would be, exactly ...
20. Re:What about copy protection. by tqk · 2014-03-31 12:36 · Score: 1
  
  In the UK that would be fine as they also use the same region as the rest of EU (2). Now, if a buddy from US sent one, then that could cause a problem.
  I've been on the net since ca. '90, and I have acquaintances from South Africa through South America through Eastern Europe and we buy each other "Seasonal Gifts" ... and they can't play what I bought with cash and sent them (and vice versa)? Highway robbery! What are there, ca. 180 - 200 countries out there, and we can't talk to each other in the 21st Century, why? I want heads on pikes.
  
  --
  "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
As a citizen of the UK by MCROnline · 2014-03-29 08:18 · Score: 2, Funny

May I be one of the first to say to my fellow UK citizens... Welcome to the 20th Century. Oh...wait..Oh well, better late than never.
1. Re:As a citizen of the UK by kthreadd · 2014-03-29 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  We all have our good and our bad sides.
2. Re:As a citizen of the UK by tqk · 2014-03-29 10:18 · Score: 1
  
  We all have our good and our bad sides.
  You've an optimistic view. Bravo. In my experience, 99.9% of your hopes and dreams will be dashed on the rocks of some or other special interest/regulation/user pay fee structure, but we'll all be dead soon, so who cares, really? You only live once. Make sure once is enough.
  Offside, what is clinical depression, really?
  
  --
  "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
So, no effective change. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 08:19 · Score: 1

Nobody has ever been taken to court for making a personal copy of something they had already licensed for personal use.
Throwing nutrient-free bones which in fact do little more than harmonise with American legislation to further integrate us into the United States - anyone would think it's election year. I was surprised to see New Labour managing to fuck things up more than Thatcher, but Cameron's done even worse.
Good luck by TheRealMindChild · 2014-03-29 08:21 · Score: 4, Interesting

"Audio outputs temporarily muted. Do not adjust the playback volume. The content being played is protected by Cinavia and is not authorized for playback on this device. For more information, see http://www.cinavia.com./ Message Code 3."

--

"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
1. Re:Good luck by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 09:20 · Score: 1
  
  Everything that plays will be copied. Everything else will be returned for a full refund. Oh who am I kidding. I will not pay for music ever again. That industry needs to go away.
2. Re:Good luck by AmiMoJo · 2014-03-29 11:09 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  PROTIP: Never buy the DRM version, get the torrent instead. Buying the crippled version just encourages them to keep doing it.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
3. Re:Good luck by thegarbz · 2014-03-29 11:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  This relies on the player to look for Cinavia. Blu-ray players do. That's about it. Your rip doesn't work on the bluray player? Pop it on a USB drive and play it on the TV, or via a media centre over the network, or via a DVR.
  I run RaspBMC for my media centre. Do you think the XBMC community is all giddy at the opportunity to include such a user friendly feature like Cinavia?
4. Re: Good luck by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 12:09 · Score: 0
  
  I totally agree. The fatcats behind the music labels have flooded the planet with sh1te. People need to put quality music before lining the pockets of corrupt businessmen. Same for politicians- chop their pay so we get quality people doing it to help others not self serving eton scum doing it for the undeserved huge salaries
5. Re:Good luck by TheRealMindChild · 2014-03-29 12:09 · Score: 4, Interesting
  The torrented version up to this point had 3 ways to go with this:
  
  - Rip from bluray and tell people trying to play it on a smart appliance that detects the cinavia watermark "lol ur stewpid. Get real hardware loser" or "OMG it plays on my laptop via VLC fine. Shut up n00b."
  - Maim the audio stream to an unintelligible mess to the point the water mark isn't detected, but deal with the fact that you can't even tell what you are hearing most of the time
  - Rip the audio stream from the DVD copy and match it up with the bluray video stream
  The last was the most popular until recently where they are putting cinavia in the audio tracks of the DVDs as well now.
  --
  
  "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
6. Re:Good luck by TheRealMindChild · 2014-03-29 12:22 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Most set to smart media players are shipping with Cinavia. Roku, Netgear NeoTV, now WDTV Live, to name a popular few implement Cinavia protection. Going forward it will eventually be all of them.
  
  I'm not even going to comment on your other "solutions".
  
  --
  
  "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
7. Re:Good luck by NapalmV · 2014-03-29 12:35 · Score: 1
  
  Where did you get a WD TV Live with Cinavia? Is there a special version for UK that has it or what?
8. Re:Good luck by AmiMoJo · 2014-03-29 21:05 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Cinavia is usually only used on the North American release of movies, so as long as you rip from a clean source (e.g. European release) you are fine. I have modern equipment that allegedly supports Cinavia and have not had playback issues with torrents. As usual the pirate version is better quality than the paid one.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
9. Re:Good luck by adolf · 2014-03-30 01:00 · Score: 1
  
  For playback on the BFT, I've got a few options. I can use the PS3 (ideal -- the scaler is awesome), the Xbox 360 (meh), a modified Wii (has other issues), an old laptop with a barely-supported video card (similar issues to the Wii), or a Krell DVD-Standard (only issue is lack of HDMI/DVI output, and physical wear and tear on an $8,000.00 device).
  For Cinavia-tainted backups (which both the PS3 and 360 puke on), I've found that the best option (as in: the option with the least fuckery) for me is to use AVStoDVD (free, OSS, zero bullshit, technical enough for tweak-mongers, always works, fairly fast, awesome output) to burn a proper DVD and play it on the Krell.
  Yeah, it's 480p. But it's a beautiful 480p, devoid of meaningful artifacts. Playback, once the media is on a DVD, is simple: Select appropriate inputs, insert DVD, adjust volume, do nothing else, and enjoy the film.
  I could do the same with any cheap bog-standard pre-Cinavia DVD player, but my bog-standrard DVD player just happens to be a ridiculously-expensive Krell.
  And so I guess this is my point: Cheap DVD players really are -cheap-, easily-replaced, and essentially universal. My backup will play nicely in anything from the Krell to a Chrysler minivan: I can lend it to others and as long as their player is not infected with Cinavia, they'll have zero issues playing it. And DVD+/-R media is cheap/fast enough that that it is both disposable and versatile (unlike thumbdrives, or Internet connectivity).
  It doesn't take a Raspberry Pi and fuckery to play this stuff: All it takes is $20 and a trip to the dollar store or pawn shop.
  (And data loss? Don't scratch the disc, and be sure to store it in the dark. Done. Really.)
  
  --
  Kid-proof tablet..
10. Re:Good luck by thegarbz · 2014-03-30 01:09 · Score: 2
  
  You say "most" I say you've named a few, and of those you've mentioned a google search shows some of them don't actually have Cinavia. Also my parent's WDTV Live plays Cinavia content without issue. Also every model of WDTV I've seen released on the local market is listed on Slysoft's site as not containing Cinavia, hence it also doesn't support BluRay menus. A quick google search shows most of Netgear NeoTVs don't implement it either despite talk of it in the market material.
  The only equipment mandated to required Cinavia is blueray players and even some of those don't implement it.
  As for using some condescending quotes when talking about my other solutions, stop being childish. Most Smart TVs these days will happily stream videos over the network, have USB ports and will happily play anything you throw at it. The only reason I have XBMC running at all is because my TV doesn't do library management. If however you were calling XBMC a "solution" in the same condescending way then feel free to keep doing what you're doing, movies must suck when you only get the first 20min of audio. Or just buy an Apple TV which is also Cinavia free, oh and Apple TV would qualify as "most" in this case given it's market share.
  None of this really matters though. As is always the case when DRM is forced on users they will bypass it. No one cared until it was mandated in bluray players last year. Now suddenly AnyDVD has defeated all software BluRay players from detecting it, DVDFab apparently has worked around copying discs (though no word on ripping yet), and as of November there's been plenty of chatter around forums to suggest the DRM scheme will fall sometime this year. Though right now you can buy just about any media centre on the market which isn't a BluRay player and isn't a Roku and be just fine.
11. Re:Good luck by Xest · 2014-03-30 21:29 · Score: 1
  
  I didn't even know Cinavia was a thing until I read this thread and I've been playing films on my PC, consoles and smart TVs regularly. I probably watch more films on a wider range of devices than most people yet I've never even seen or heard of this thing previously.
  That's how irrelevant it is.
12. Re:Good luck by thegarbz · 2014-03-30 23:39 · Score: 1
  
  That's how irrelevant it *was*. The problem is that this is a copy protection which has existed in the shadows for years so it's been generally ignored even by manufacturers, until now.
  Basically it's copy protection enforced by the playing device. Now why would a manufacturer want to install something like that? Why would a media company use a disc protection mechanism that doesn't do anything on most players? Enter Sony and the PS3, which with one of it's critical updates introduced Cinavia. Then there came an explosion of Cinavia protected films. Still no one cared, but most Blurays that came out last year had Cinavia protection. So the only thing missing was Cinavia on playback devices.
  Well in 2012 the BluRay Disc Association made Cinavia mandatory for BDA certification of players. That now means that you can't get certification if your player doesn't support Cinavia.
  1) Effectively all those "smart" bluray players which want to double as a media player are now useless to many people as they can't play their legitimate rips of content they conveniently store on a server and now have to buy yet another bloody device. (RPi in my case).
  2) All computer software capable of playing blurays either need to support cinavia or need to break the encryption some how (AnyDVD).
  3) After market media players which don't support Cinavia, also don't support things like Bluray menus effectively meaning you can't play backed up content in it's full glory or without breaking the encryption first.
  So while you say it's irrelevant I ask why the hell can I not buy a computer and simply expect to pop a bluray in the drive and have it run without problems, and don't even get me started on Linux bluray support.
  DRM is anything but irrelevant in the movie industry, though it is almost completely irrelevant in the gaming / music industry.
13. Re:Good luck by Xest · 2014-03-31 00:09 · Score: 1
  
  Things like this never work though, we saw it with DVDs where companies were told they couldn't provide region free players if they wanted to be certified, well guess what? China didn't give a shit, and started churning out cheap unbranded players that were region free - no one gave a fuck that they weren't certified because, well, they all still worked like any other and had other features like being able to play DivX movies and so forth to boot.
  It wasn't long before the likes of Toshiba and Samsung said fuck this, we're not losing the market because the movie industry is lame and started to follow suit.
  The problem is when you start making it profitable to break such DRM methods then that DRM wont last long and the market will start to get flooded with devices that ignore that DRM rendering it useless. All the industry manages to do in the process is piss off legitimate consumers and lump manufacturers and themselves with returned products that don't work costing them a fortune.
  Long story short, there's no natural positive economic model in DRM, hence it's doomed to fail in the fact of competing economic interests that do have natural markets - i.e. consumers that just want to play their content.
14. Re:Good luck by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-31 06:58 · Score: 0
  
  http://shop.seagate.com/store?Action=html&Locale=en_US&SiteID=sgateus&pbPage=SalesAndClearance
  GoFlex Tv $49.99 straight from Seagate. It has played everything I have asked it to play, including Bluray rips.
15. Re:Good luck by thegarbz · 2014-03-31 11:03 · Score: 1
  
  Very true and there's already whispers around the internet that Cinavia was broken a few months ago. The trick is to introduce inaudible pitch changes in the audiotrack but the specifics are not known.
  The point about the damages not being irrelevant are however still the same. You remember the retarded notion that Windows XP released in 2001 couldn't out of the box play a disc format released in 1995 despite the OS itself coming on that disc format? Or just look at how long it took for Linux to be able to play a DVD-Audio. Or just look at the state of Bluray support on Linux.
  Just because encryption schemes are worthless and can be broken doesn' t mean we shouldn't fight them at every turn.
16. Re:Good luck by Xest · 2014-03-31 19:53 · Score: 1
  
  I absolutely agree for what it's worth, I'm concerned that DRM is given such a free pass here on Slashdot - Valve is positively worshipped here and barely a word wrong can be said about them, yet they're responsible for arguably the greatest proliferation of some of the most intrusive DRM on the PC to date. When they do hashes of DNS cache of suspected cheaters and so forth they're made excuses for and so on "Oh, it's only suspected cheaters" - so fucking what? A game isn't important enough to commit a flagrant invasion of privacy over.
  So you're preaching to the converted here, I believe no company deserves a free ride of DRM whoever they are, and I believe no DRM is ever acceptable because it has no logical benefit for the consumer ever, under any circumstance, it's only ever detrimental and it uses our CPU cycles, bandwidth, and memory to cause that detriment to our experiences.
  So apologies if I gave the impression I was suggesting we shouldn't fight it - I agree we absolutely should. I was more making the point that I suspect it's doomed to fail precisely because people will fight it, especially when there's an economic incentive in selling devices that don't screw the consumer with it.
Related: Austria Question by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 08:28 · Score: 0

Slightly OT, but is there anyone from Austria or familiar with Austrian copyright law that could tell me whether it is legal to rip DVDs there?
I may be moving over there for work and would be taking my NAS, which contains around 2,000 DVD and Blu Ray films that I have ripped for my home theater PC. Is it legal to take that NAS to Austria? Otherwise, I'll have to leave it in the states. And do without my collection -- I'm sure as hell not going to ship 30 big boxes of moves over there.
1. Re:Related: Austria Question by symbolset · 2014-03-29 09:46 · Score: 1
  
  You might look into encrypted volumes.
  
  --
  Help stamp out iliturcy.
2. Re:Related: Austria Question by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 14:29 · Score: 0
  
  I may, but I'm awfully nervous about encrypting in place 16Tb of data. That's quite a lot of reads and writes. My "backup" right now is simply the physical media, so if it screws up, I'd have to re-rip everything and that's an awful lot of time. I kept the drives as separately addressable volumes for much the same reason -- if one fails, it's only 1/4 of the work to redo.
3. Re:Related: Austria Question by symbolset · 2014-03-29 21:18 · Score: 0
  
  Dur. Why would you be encrypting it in place? You have billions of dollars worth of IP, and you can't even be bothered to store it twice? I don't even.
  
  --
  Help stamp out iliturcy.
Meanwhile back in the land of the not so free ... by Zorlon · 2014-03-29 08:30 · Score: 5, Interesting

http://www.myce.com/news/break...

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- Things are the way they are because they're coded that way -
Woot! by Spottywot · 2014-03-29 08:32 · Score: 2

It's finally legal to do something that no-one could be bothered to harass me for doing when it was illegal. I feel freer already.

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In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
1. Re:Woot! by mrbester · 2014-03-29 09:55 · Score: 2
  
  The 85% who thought it wasn't illegal to make a backup were correct as it isn't illegal to do so. However, it was a copyright infringement to do so. So you have something you are entitled to do that is also illegal. Since your consumer rights trump a civil misdemeanour (never tested, but your rights are inviolable) no one wanted the hassle of upholdng that law.
  
  --
  "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
2. Re:Woot! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 10:22 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, torrenting is way easier anyway.
3. Re:Woot! by Spottywot · 2014-03-29 10:44 · Score: 1
  
  The 85% who thought it wasn't illegal to make a backup were correct as it isn't illegal to do so. However, it was a copyright infringement to do so. So you have something you are entitled to do that is also illegal. Since your consumer rights trump a civil misdemeanour (never tested, but your rights are inviolable) no one wanted the hassle of upholdng that law.
  So you agree with me then?
  
  --
  In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
4. Re:Woot! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 12:29 · Score: 0
  
  It's finally legal to do something that no-one could be bothered to harass me for doing when it was illegal. I feel freer already.
  Hold it up to your nearest street-light camera and smile!
  I love the UK. You always know what's going on there.
Notice this part by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 08:41 · Score: 1

I'm sure no one has been stopped at copying media for personal use for a long time, but there's also this part in the end of the summary:
Besides the new private copying rights, the upcoming amendments will also broaden people’s fair use rights. For example, people no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized.
1. Re:Notice this part by Spottywot · 2014-03-29 08:49 · Score: 1
  
  I'm sure no one has been stopped at copying media for personal use for a long time, but there's also this part in the end of the summary:
  Besides the new private copying rights, the upcoming amendments will also broaden people’s fair use rights. For example, people no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized.
  That actually is good news, haven't read the details yet, but on the face of it a really positive move. Must check to see what this is designed to distract us from...
  
  --
  In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
2. Re:Notice this part by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 12:54 · Score: 0
  
  I'm sure no one has been stopped at copying media for personal use for a long time, but there's also this part in the end of the summary:
  Besides the new private copying rights, the upcoming amendments will also broaden people’s fair use rights. For example, people no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized.
  That actually is good news, haven't read the details yet, but on the face of it a really positive move. Must check to see what this is designed to distract us from...
  Hmmm as a guess a "Free Trade Agreement" with the USA which will remove all such rights as you "willingly" take on the US copyright and patent laws, much like the TPPA is going to do to loads of countries around the pacific.
Sometimes it's illegal to break into your own hous by Overzeetop · 2014-03-29 10:38 · Score: 1

But breaking into a house you've leased to someone else is illegal. Sure, you own the container, but the contents are actually owned by someone else. You may be able to do certain things the other person's content is contained in, but you can't do anything with the stuff inside.
(in a troll mood this rainy afternoon)

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Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
But you can't circumvent DRM by umafuckit · 2014-03-29 10:45 · Score: 1

However, it will remain illegal to circumvent DRM. So whilst this law is progress, it's not progressing very far.

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soylentnews.org
1. Re: But you can't circumvent DRM by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 12:01 · Score: 0
  
  I agree but i will do what the f### i want with something i have legally bought f### the big brother eu nazis
The mismatch between the law by nurb432 · 2014-03-29 10:51 · Score: 1

And reality.. Common sense.. And many other things, not just 'public opinion'

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---- Booth was a patriot ----
Finally! by Highland+Deck+Box · 2014-03-29 12:06 · Score: 1

Oh boy I can't wait to rip all my... oh wait I haven't used the dvd drive on my computer in like five years. I don't actually think it's connected because I needed the power connector for another hard drive.
Friends? EU? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 12:56 · Score: 0

I have no friends in the EU...no one would ever send me anything...
They didn't want my money by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 16:57 · Score: 0

I used to buy physical copies, but since they made it illegal to do whatever I want with them, I decided to not buy them any more.
Good ole USA by theendlessnow · 2014-03-29 17:04 · Score: 1

Anyone wanna bet that the USA will never allow their citizens to create backup copies of their DVDs? Land of Freedo.... never mind...
Australia out of line by Canberra1 · 2014-03-29 18:46 · Score: 1

In Australia, the AG's position is No - sucking up to Taliban copyright holders. With our mother country (England) going the other way - there is bound to be egg on their faces. They also keep the laws low profile, as the iPhone generation now vote, and spitting in the face of voters and downloaders will cost them seats. In the meantime netflix and usip are doing brisk business, as the exstisting price fixing agreements have not been prosecuted, so the advantage of rich media barons. May more undeclared party donations become 'uncovered'.
Sweet by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 19:38 · Score: 0

does this mean a new version of dvd decrypter?
Copying (most) DVDs still illegal by carvell · 2014-03-29 20:43 · Score: 2

As noted in this report, Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) (i.e. CSS) are still protected:
"Consistent with the approach taken in relation to other exceptions, no reference to TPMs is made within draft Section 28B. Effective TPMs which prevent copying of copyright materials will however continue to be protected, separately to copyright protection, under Section 296ZA CDPA, and circumvention of such measures will continue to be prohibited."
So Awesome by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-29 22:58 · Score: 1

That is so awesome. Just in time for the tenth anniversary of the obsolescence of CDs and DVDs. W00t!
Still getting CDs by fa2k · 2014-03-30 00:53 · Score: 1

CDs are the best way to get the best sound quality for a reasonable price. They are useless physical objects so i only keep the rips. Good that it's legal now ! (I'm no longer in the UK, but wasn't caught ;)
Burying the lead? by AAWood · 2014-03-30 05:19 · Score: 2

I'm more interested in this part:
People no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized.
As a Brit who does indeed already back up my media, yeah, it's cool that that's moving from "illegal but unenforceable and unenforced" to "legal", but finally getting proper Fair Use laws? That's major. With the increasing use of digital media as primary, disc ripping is on the decline anyway, while home-grown content creation and mixing is definitely on the rise. That will have a much larger effect on more people, now and moving forwards.
Re:Sometimes it's illegal to break into your own h by Belial6 · 2014-03-30 05:23 · Score: 1

Leased from, and no it is not illegal to break into a house you have leased from someone.
Re:Sometimes it's illegal to break into your own h by Anonymous Coward · 2014-03-30 06:10 · Score: 0

He did actually mean to say "leased to".
Re:Friends? EU? by tqk · 2014-03-30 08:43 · Score: 1

I have no friends in the EU...no one would ever send me anything...
I feel for you. <crickets>
Fill in the blanks in any way it may please you. So, what do you think about goldfish?

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"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
private copying levy ? by derrek · 2014-03-30 08:57 · Score: 1

So will UK implement private copying levy on blank media like in other countries that allow private copy ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... I wonder how much they'll charge ?
fine toothcomb ? by Zoxed · 2014-03-31 04:37 · Score: 1

Sorry if I sound too cynical but has anyone gone over this with a fine toothcomb ? Seems strange to be given new freedoms without something being taken away ?