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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Friday, July 09, 2004

Whose DVD? A Debate Over Copies

New York Times (free registration required): "While the film industry has forced 321 Studios, a Missouri company, to stop selling software that can copy Hollywood movies sold on DVD's, its success may be limited. Purveyors of software tools that can do the same thing, sometimes better, are flourishing on the Internet - and the wares are often free. The availability and apparently widespread use of such tools is fostering debate about the legality and the ethical implications of such copying by individual consumers - including people who copy DVD's onto a computer to avoid carrying a disc while they travel, or to keep children from damaging the originals - who do not distribute copies of the DVD as pirates do. The free copying tools are available through Internet sites that are not directly subject to American law, often because the nations that those sites call home permit individuals to copy material for their own use."

I'm a bit confused why there is any debate about this at all. To my mind, the Fair Use laws in the United States are pretty clear cut: If you purchased a DVD movie, you can make a backup for archival or personal use reasons, no questions asked. With hard drive sizes increasing, this is becoming more and more of a common thing, too. I routinely save recorded TV shows (in WMV format) to a server hard drive here at Casa de Thurrott, and generally copy a few onto a laptop every time I travel, so I can watch those shows on the road. It's called Fair Use. It's legal.

[ Posted at 8:57 AM | Permalink ]