What are the legalities concerning ripping your private DVD collection to your HD?

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zamardii

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I want to consolidate space, and we are overrunning in DVDs. I want a home theater PC that can hold all my movies, but how do I go about ripping all of them to the computer? Do i just rip them all as ISOs? I've never done this before, and I know ripping so many DVDs will be very time consuming but what is the best software to quickly rip DVDs onto your hard drive?

Also, what are the legalities involving getting rid of the DVDs once you have burned them? I don't want to keep them once they're copied, so what can I do? Will I be penalized if for some reason all those movies are found on my computer but don't have the physical disc anymore?
 
It's likely illegal in the United States by the chapter and verse of the law.
You have the right to create a backup of your media for personal use.
It is a crime for you to circumvent copy-protection / DRM measures to facilitate your backup.

I don't know of any individual being prosecuted for it, though. I would love to see the issue challenged in court.

Personally, I would keep the discs. Just put them in a big disc binder in storage or something.


You can do it using a number of tools. I use AnyDVD.
 
If it is a DRM free copy that you have made a backup of, you're entitled to keep the backup as long as you own the original disk. Thus, if you sell/get rid of the original disk, you are no longer entitled to the backup.

Of course, if you circumvent DRM infestation to create the backup, you've got a DMCA violation.
 
Zangmonkey said:
It's likely illegal in the United States by the chapter and verse of the law.
You have the right to create a backup of your media for personal use.
It is a crime for you to circumvent copy-protection / DRM measures to facilitate your backup.

I don't know of any individual being prosecuted for it, though. I would love to see the issue challenged in court.

Personally, I would keep the discs. Just put them in a big disc binder in storage or something.


You can do it using a number of tools. I use AnyDVD.
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Unless there's been a more recent case where fair use was upheld, the Universal City vs Corley case set the precedent that fair use of the decrypted material is not a valid argument for breaking DRM.

That being said, it's unlikely that you'll be prosecuted for making a personal backup.
 
valve1138 said:
It's fine, enjoy.
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Neb said:
Unless there's been a more recent case where fair use was upheld, the Universal City vs Corley case set the precedent that fair use of the decrypted material is not a valid argument for breaking DRM.

That being said, it's unlikely that you'll be prosecuted for making a personal backup.
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Good to know. I REALLY don't want to have to keep the DVD discs along with the cases after I back them up. Maybe I can keep just the discs in something, but I don't want to store anything I don't use.
 
Legal? No, but I have been ripping some of my older DVDs and virtually all of my CDs for years and have sold them off at yard sales to keep them from cluttering up the house.

I doubt any of the authorities are going to fret over someone selling movies from 50 cents to a few dollars to their neighbors.
 
BartY said:
Legal? No, but I have been ripping some of my older DVDs and virtually all of my CDs for years and have sold them off at yard sales to keep them from cluttering up the house.

I doubt any of the authorities are going to fret over someone selling movies from 50 cents to a few dollars to their neighbors.
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Probably not but I bet they still consider those movies to be worth $20-30 each. A lawyer will make sure that those discs are worth every penny! :(

I have 150 blu-rays in a cabinet in the living room and another 200 DVDs in 2 binders under the couch. Now that everything is on my Plex media center the only time the cabinet doors are ever opened is to store another movie. heh
 
BartY said:
Legal? No, but I have been ripping some of my older DVDs and virtually all of my CDs for years and have sold them off at yard sales to keep them from cluttering up the house.
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Considering a CD/DVD occupies a negligible amount of volume, I find this a dubious claim.
 
zamardii said:
Good to know. I REALLY don't want to have to keep the DVD discs along with the cases after I back them up. Maybe I can keep just the discs in something, but I don't want to store anything I don't use.
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I would highly recommend keeping them, even if they weren't kept in an easily accessed spot and were instead kept in a water tight bin in the shed or garage.

1. In the eyes of most interpretations of the law, not having the disks is basically equivalent to piracy so you may as well just skip the disks and use torrent/usenet.

2. If your storage setup ever corrupts or dies or otherwise becomes unusable, you still have the original copies to pull again.

3. If you rip these to .mkv and decide later you want the .iso format, you can always just rerip all of the disks.

There are very compact cd containers you can get and just chuck the cases.
 
wonderfield said:
Considering a CD/DVD occupies a negligible amount of volume, I find this a dubious claim.
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While I totally agree that it's not okay to rip them and sell them (might as well just download them and never buy anything), the size of CDs and DVDs absolutely adds up. I have around 100 linear feet of shelving (as in the sum of shelf widths * number of shelves) taken up by my CDs/DVDs/manga and I still have a bunch in boxes. And I'd only consider my collection "medium" sized.

OP: plenty of software available. I used to use StaxRip but haven't checked it out for a year or two. There's also MakeMKV. (There're way more than just those, too.)
 
PinkyThePig said:
1. In the eyes of most interpretations of the law, not having the disks is basically equivalent to piracy so you may as well just skip the disks and use torrent/usenet.
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Piracy is defined as murder and pillage on the high seas and has nothing to do with DVDs. Now that we have that out of the way, US code does not prohibit the owning of any recording even if it infringes on the rights of the copyright holder. It's only illegal to distribute or or broadcast without consent.

To the OP:

You've got nothing worry about. No one cares about your collection of DVD rips or whatever other digital media you have unless you were to start an operation where you were selling them without consent of the copyright holder. Think of all the people who, over the years, used dual tape decks and CD/DVD burners and VHS recorders to copy cassette tapes and CD's that they didn't own or movies that they had rented.
 
dandragonrage said:
While I totally agree that it's not okay to rip them and sell them (might as well just download them and never buy anything),
Click to expand...

Why is that? If he rips them and sells them then he had to have bought them at some point. If he bought them new then the money had already been made. If he bought them used, then again,the money had already been made. Either way, it's not hurting anyone.
 
The odds of having to deal with the long arm of the law for breaking products you actually own of their chained down DRM simply for the purpose of changing the storage method is very safe. I really doubt you'd ever have to face legality for it.

The DMCA is a mess. If the recent bullshit with Youtube Content ID isn't a clear cut indication of what's wrong with copyright law then I do not know what could ever be.

Go a head and back up whatever you personally own and don't worry about it honestly. But just be smart about it and don't share it with others until the currently grey lines become a bit more defined.
 
its illegal technically, but if you use it for private use nothing is going to happen. Its the people that share them that get into any legal trouble.
 
They're yours. Do whatever you want with them, and don't let anyone tell you what to do with your own property. Never allow companies to delude you into thinking you've paid for a "license to use" a product rather than full and complete ownership of that product. Many forum-goers here will disagree. They're wrong.
 
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