Ads offering magic new DVD Copy Software pour into our emailboxes and flood the Internet. But make no mistake – using DVD Copy Software can be tricky … technically AND legally.
US Copyright law allows you, under the long-established ‘fair use’ clause, to make a copy of a movie you have bought as backup incase the dog chews your original. But the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) means you certainly can’t sell or even lend your new copy.
Once you’ve mapped the legal minefield, there are literally scores of companies offering the DVD Copy Software you’ll need to burn copies of the DVDs you own. WWW.CompareDVDSoftware.com is worth checking out.
Cost runs from $40-$80 wherever you shop. The hitch is that DVD Copy Software comprises only instructions and minor extra software slipped into existing free public domain software, a programme called SmartRipper, which you can download free.
This researcher could not find a single piece of DVD Copy Software that doesn’t rely on free public domain software.
Once DVD Copy Software is installed, place your original DVD into your DVD ROM drive and check its contents. You will find files that contain the actual movie as an MPEG-2 encoded – simply a method of compressing data just like MP3 files compress audio information.
Now you think you can simply copy to your hard disc and burn to a new CD? Think again! DVD’s are protected by copyright and should NOT be copied.