Hollywood battling 'DVD copying'

[News Bot]

The six big movie studios are locked in a court case over RealDVD, a product that lets users copy DVDs.

Click Here to read the full BBC News Story

[ken]

I hope realdvd wins. People have copied vcr tapes for years.

[computer2slow]

They might as well settle now RealDVD is toast. As soon as they broke any encryption thanks to the DMCA it's illegal software regardless of what it's gonna be used for. Thank Clinton and the 1998 house & senate. I'm surpized it lasted this long DVD x Copy was banned in 2003.

[fadeout001]

ReadDVD though actually spoke with the movie companies before creating their product. It is that type of technology that has made that "digital Copy" that now comes with your DVDs available. The problem here is that the moronic movie companies didn't think about where their movies would end up. They thought making a a digital copy so people could watch it on the go would be a good idea and it is (it saves me from having to take my actual disks on trips and save battery on my laptop as it isn't having to run the disk drive). The trouble and the core of this battle really comes from the movie rental aspect. They made every movie they release with this digital copy thing and then they stick the movie on the shelves for rent at say places like Blockbuster.

If you haven't bought a DVD that has come with this then here is what is actually involved: You first have to get the DVD (Buy or rent), then you stick it in the computer and access a special download, then it asks for a code that came with the DVD (This is important as it won't DL without it and it).

Now movie corporations are taking them to court because it is allowing people to rent and then copy the DVD without ever having to buy the movie Yet the movie companies and rental places leave the code in the film so people can do the same thing "legally" All you have to do is take the movie rental corps into court and claim they are allowing "legal, illegal" DLs of films because those idiots are not taking that code out of the DVD case before putting it on the shelves. That will make a real statement.

Now they are waging war on any major company that allows people to transfer DVDs. Out of the few 100 people that may do this there are still millions who buy the films and rent them just to rent them. This is not the same thing as Napster as this program is not free. It is a store bought program meant to allow people to make "back up copies" of their disks. Though you can find DLs of it on the net like any program on today's market; it is sold to be a useful item and if people use it for making illegal copies then they are still punishable by law for copyright infringements. This is like any company's product. The initial one has bugs or exploits some people are using to cheat the system. The company has learned of this and is now making tweaks to it in order to stop this illegal activity. Bad foresight on their part to not see people doing this, maybe, but they are making every effort to stop it from happening. If movie people are worried about their DVD sales then they should allow this company to do their tweaks, make it safer, and realize people don't even need a program to make back up copies as they are allowing us to do it without the use of one.

This is not the companies fault as they are not promoting illegal copies like Napster did because it is not free, they have the usual copyright laws and how it is illegal to break them, and they are trying to fix security issues on it. This is just Hollywood realizing they are starting to hurt from this recession and looking for any way, even cheap dastardly ways of keeping their profit margins. The thing is people are not buying many movies because we have better stuff to spend it on like food, gas, education, mortgage payments, any other bills we receive.