So is it okay to rip DVDs and Blu Rays?

[Saint Chewy]

Basically I am in the process of setting up my HTPC, and what I would like to do is be able to backup all my movies and put them on my hard drive. I want to use Kodi to be able to play them. I guess I just dont want to break the law. I try to be very careful when it comes to this kind of stuff. I have never downloaded any music, movies or games. I try to be as legal as possible when it comes this kinda stuff. 

[minibois]

Not sure if it is legal under your laws, but it would be under mine.

As long as you are not distributing the movies to others. It's still for personal use.

[Arty]

USA doesn't care 

[EarthboundHero]

As long as you aren't distributing it, you're fine. Same with games.

[Saint Chewy]

Yeah definitely not distributing them lol. Just trying to keep my discs safe from my daughter. Shes already ruined quite a few

[Murdoch]

The legality of this is hilariously questionable, even in the US. For any Disk that has any sort of copy protection, you're not really allowed by law to "remove" or tamper with that copy protection.

 

That being said, as @Arty says, nobody cares.

[manikyath]

pretty sure its legal in belgium, and to quote an agent of the belgian "federal computer crime unit": 

 

we dont bother with small piracy, our stack of cases grows faster than we can shrink it. if you dont pirate terabytes of data each month we're probably not gonna bother.

[Arty]

The legality of this is hilariously questionable, even in the US. For any Disk that has any sort of copy protection, you're not really allowed by law to "remove" or tamper with that copy protection.

 

That being said, as @Arty says, nobody cares.

Honestly if the police knocked on my door about it. After they left i would just crack up and make a stupid post here saying how there are real criminals at large blah blah.

[SImoHayha]

No body really care tbh. Use DVD Decrypter to get your movie files. Then play them using VLC. As long as you don't sell it to other lel.

[Murdoch]

Honestly if the police knocked on my door about it. After they left i would just crack up and make a stupid post here saying how there are real criminals at large blah blah.

 

Yeah dude, it's pretty silly. But this is what the anti-circumvention part of the DMCA looks like. Now, it's questionable because there are also "fair use policies" in copyright law, which this seems to be at odds with. So yeah, the legality is a grey area.

 

Section 103 (17 U.S.C Sec. 1201(a)(1)) of the DMCA states:

    No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

The Act defines what it means in Section 1201(a)(3):

    (3) As used in this subsection—

    (A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

    (B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

Thus, if there is some "technological measure that effectively controls access to a work", it is illegal to circumvent that measure. However, Section 1201 creates several exceptions to this rule, and the Library of Congress is empowered to create additional exceptions.

[Saint Chewy]

Why is ripping a DVD for personal use such a grey area? If I own it why can't I play it where I want and store it where I want? No one throws a fit when you rip CDs?

[Murdoch]

Why is ripping a DVD for personal use such a grey area? If I own it why can't I play it where I want and store it where I want? No one throws a fit when you rip CDs?

 

CDs don't have copy protection. It's literally just the removal of the copy protection that is the grey area. But bear in mind, everybody does it, and nobody has ever gotten into trouble for doing it. There has been a court case against a company that made DVD copying software though.

 

In August 2009, the DVD Copy Control Association won a lawsuit against RealNetworks for violating copyright law in selling its RealDVD software, allowing users to copy DVDs and store them on a harddrive. The DVD Copy Control Association claimed that Real violated the DMCA by circumventing anti-piracy measures ARccOS Protection and RipGuard, as well as breaking Real's licensing agreement with the MPAA's Content Scrambling System.

[Saint Chewy]

So would backing up media be considered safe under that "fair use" then? It just seems so confusing without a simple yes or no.

[Fgtfv567]

The legality of this is hilariously questionable, even in the US. For any Disk that has any sort of copy protection, you're not really allowed by law to "remove" or tamper with that copy protection.

That being said, as @Arty says, nobody cares.

But, but... Those unskippable FBI warnings....

[Murdoch]

But, but... Those unskippable FBI warnings....

Anydvd HD

Essential software if you ever watch DVDs or Blurays on a PC

[Arty]

But, but... Those unskippable FBI warnings....

#internet methods 

[GoodBytes]

You have to see with your country laws about this.

For example, one country might allow you to BACKUP (meaning ISO) of a DVD movie, but not rip it (video file), for personal usage. Some might allow you to rip teh DVD only if it doesn't have any DRM on it. If not you can't do anything or only do a direct backup (ISO). In the U.K I think it is now completely illegal to do anything.

You have to look at your country laws. It really varies.

I am unfamiliar with U.S laws. Isn't like everyone in teh house watching a movie needs to buy the movie to watch it, or something crazy like that? Or was that something the movie industry wanted to push but failed. Don't know like, I said.

[Shin-Gouki]

In the US it's pretty much as long as you are not selling it en mass they are not going to come after you. Besides the NSA already knows everything you do anyway

[GoldSrc]

Who cares dude, rip your movies if you want, I would rather do that than have the discs get scratched.

 

CDs don't have copy protection. It's literally just the removal of the copy protection that is the grey area.

Some audio CDs do have copy protections.

[Murdoch]

Some audio CDs do have copy protections.

 

Sure, but as a general rule they don't. Sony did try their best, but got hammered for implementing it

[Ptopman]

There is no way they are going to know that you ripped data. Just don't sell that data, that is when Shit hits the fan and you get black helicopters flying around your house... ok so I exaggerated but still.

[Ekpyrosis]

If you want to be super-safe, you can play a DVD and record it at the same time, (e.g. via a capture card). This way, you're technically not removing any DRM, so it's fine. It doesn't really work with Blurays, though, due to HDCP.

[thedarkdad3]

A buddy of mine I knew a few years ago Sold Blu-Rays,DVD's and XBOX 360's Games

 

All bootlegs e.g. Backups.

 

 

I told him to stop that he'd get pinched after a while. Well they confiscated all this stuff like 18 months ago. pc,all consoles.

 

Its ok to backup you just can't sell it to make a profit.

[ShiftHitTheFan]

A buddy of mine I knew a few years ago Sold Blu-Rays,DVD's and XBOX 360's Games

 

All bootlegs e.g. Backups.

 

 

I told him to stop that he'd get pinched after a while. Well they confiscated all this stuff like 18 months ago. pc,all consoles.

 

Its ok to backup you just can't sell it to make a profit.

Not just selling, giving away free copies is also illegal in most places. Even loaning that game to your buddy for a weekend is technically illegal as you don't have the right to loan out the game, but really, who cares.

[GoldSrc]

Sure, but as a general rule they don't. Sony did try their best, but got hammered for implementing it

I don't think it was Sony's idea, the Red Book standard states that audio CDs shouldn't have copy protection, and audio CDs that do, are not allowed to have the CDDA logo on them.