RealDVD to make the DVD-ripping process completely legal

Seattle-based RealNetworks will soon be launching RealDVD - a completely-legal software package designed to allow users to creature digital copies of their DVDs.

You might be thinking, so what, I've been ripping DVDs for years with various freeware packages. Well, the highly-illegal process you're all accustomed to leaves the lingering possibility of a hefty fine.

RealDVD, on the other hand, provides no such concerns. The software package, expected to be officially announced later today, will allow users to create entire uncompressed copies of their DVDs - including menus and extra features - whilst keeping any copy-protection intact.

In addition, RealDVD will go and add DRM to your copied content, allowing for it to be played back on a maximum of five PCs. That sounds generous, but there is a catch - the software itself will retail at a special introductory price of $30, and each additional computer on which you'd also like to playback your copies will require another $20 license.

Even at those prices, however, the software could prove to be hugely popular. According to reports, RealDVD is a standalone package with no need for any other RealNetworks software, and initial impressions are good. The Media Center-like interface offers a clean browsing environment, and allows for cover art and ratings for each DVD held in a library.

It all sounds promising, but will it hold up in court? RealNetworks is banking on the DVD Copy Control Association's 2007 lawsuit against Kaleidescape, in which a US judge ruled DVD-ripping to be legal, but that particular case is awaiting the outcome of an appeal.

The legal ramifications of Real's software are anything but clear, and its Achilles' heel could be that RealDVD doesn't require a disc to be inserted in order for the copy to be played back. Hollywood studios, therefore, are likely to argue that there's nothing preventing users from renting, copying, and returning DVDs - a point which in truth, is completely valid.

We'll be keeping a close eye on RealDVD, and rooting for its success, as this could pave the way for many more legal DVD-ripping applications.

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Hmmm.

There's a way to go yet before DVD ripping becomes legal.

Firstly, as I understand it, the court decision on which that story is based is a US court decision and even if DVD ripping becomes legal in the US it does not imply it necessarily will be so anywhere else. So those of us in the UK, for start, aren't affected by this …. or at least, not directly.

Secondly, even that decision doesn't make ripping legal, because the judge specifically didn't address the copyright infringement issues. There's several aspects to all this, even in UK law and the UK is a bit different to the US. In the UK, bypassing copy protection systems is a criminal offence, but even if material doesn't even have them, illegal copies can still be both a civil and criminal matter, depending on the circumstances of any copying. And, as I understand it, that situation is broadly the same even if the legislation covering breaching copy protection and copyright is similar in scope and certainly similar in purpose, but definitely different in implementation and in detailed provisions.

In short, even in the US, that decision doesn't make copies legal because of copyright, and no part of it applies here, in the UK and/or Europe, until and unless the respective courts here come up with a similar ruling.

libdvdcss is a wonderful thing.

I assume the DRM they provide is entirely arbitrary in the number of computers it can be viewed on etc? (Not to mention the $$ for licenses to play them on other computers…)

Seems to me like either it's legal or it isn't, so there's no need to pay for a tool to do it and add DRM when there are free tools…

So now I can pay to do something of dubious legality - woohoo!

But seriously - people who are copying DVDs don't generally give a fig that it's an illegal act. They also avoid DRM like the plague. They want free content, both in terms of ‘beer’ and ‘speech’. They don't want to be held hostage by any corporation.

If I have to endure DRM, I'd rather it be at the hands of Universal or Time Warner than RealNetworks, who, if history is anything to go by, will make me use an extraordinarily slow, bloated and tedious piece of software which bugs me constantly to upgrade to their ‘Pro’ edition!

I thought making one backup of a DVD is ok. I don't bother anyway so this is of no use to me.

RealDVD to make the DVD-ripping process completely legal

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