If you rip a flick, can you sleep at night?
p2pnet news view MPAA | Freedom | P2P:- Essentially, RealNetworks’ new, and much vaunted (by it), RealDVD ripper, “allows you to take a DVD you own and make a legal copy of it on up to five machines,” wrote Dan Tynan recently.
There are, of course, plenty of other applications which do exactly the same without the DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control. But they’re not being promoted to the hilt by RealNetworks so, “Unless you’ve got the hacking skills of a Jon Lech Johansen, you can’t share these copies with anybody else without handing them the drive you copied the movie to,” says Dan.
“And if you really wanted to swap movies illegally, there are, oh, about a gajillion easier ways to do it than by abusing RealDVD.”
A gajillion? More than that. 
But Hollywood which, as we all know, is barely surviving as it scrapes along on its its last 60 billion dollars, has another argument, he goes on, to wit »»»
Customers will “rent, rip, and return” DVDs from Blockbuster or Netflix. So instead of spending $10 to $20 for the movie at Wal-Mart, you drop $5 at Blockbuster and make copies you can watch on your computer. Real admits that’s possible (and illegal under the terms of its license).
Not only but also »»»
You can argue legalities all day long (and, if you’re a copyright attorney, make hundreds of dollars an hour doing it). But the fact is that the recording and film industries have been trying to kill off the concepts of fair use and the creative commons for decades. Today’s copyright laws are written by industry lobbyists and handed over to friendly members of Congress for a rubber stamp. They do not represent the will of the people.
Meanwhile, the assertion by the Hollywood’s korporate kopyright kops, the MPAA, that those wicked customers will, “rent, rip, [reproduce] and return” DVDs from Blockbuster or Netflix, et al, “is a valid concern for them, though I think it costs a bit more that $5 to rent a movie a Blockbuster these days,” says p2pnet reader Irate Pirate in a comment post, going on »»»
My wife is the one who usually does the renting.
Occasionally she will bring home one movie too many given the amount of time we have before they need to be returned. More than once it has been because of an unexpected visit to the emergency room (kidney stones the last time).
I admit that in certain cases such as these we will indeed “rip” a rented movie to the computer for later watching. The MPAA would most likely cringe upon hearing that, but we feel we’re entitled to watch the movie we rented at least once. We paid for exactly that privilege after all and it’s perfectly fair IMHO.
I’m sure there are all kinds of arguments and excuses one could come up with to argue against that point (some license we’ve agreed to but have likely never read for instance), but even so there is no getting around the fact that it truly is only fair.
Fairness, I think, is at the heart of every discussion relating to the use of copyrighted IP and greed/selfishness tends to blind everyone on both sites to that fact.
Anyways, once we’ve managed to finally watch the ripped movie, we delete it. If it was really good, we’ll likely buy the DVD at a later date (Blu-ray nowadays, we’ve come to hate standard def). You can’t beat owning your own official (and might I add, legal) copy, one you can watch with alone or with friends and family as many times over as you want, complete with all extras and a nice package. I’m sure there are lots of people out there renting and making cheap copies to keep (or worse, sell) but that is a moral line everyone has to cross on their own and none of my business.
But —- does Irate Pirate sleep comfortably at night?
“You bet I do.”
Dan Tynan – Will MPAA replace RIAA as Public Enemy No 1?, October 3, 2008
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October 4th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I agree fully and I will also add:
What large banks and corporations have done is whittle away at the economy, the middle class, whole countries, honest businesses, jobs and putting most people in the poor house, in turn creating a two tier system. The rich and the poor and so they think “slaves”.
You try to go rent a movie for 5 bucks when you can’t live on $385 per month. You have one of two choices: rent or food, but not both. Take your pick.
If you pay for food you end up on the street. Without that address you just had they cut off your food too. If you pay for rent then you need to visit food banks or beg for food. This is true for over 6.5 million people ion Canada.
To get a low paying job you’re back to getting less than 385 bucks. And the vicious circle continues.
In the USA it’s much worse. Whole families are living in tent cities, Small pup tents yet, with no means of income what-so-ever.
The idiots [Morgans, Rockefellers, etc. and the secret satanic group they belong to] have caused this and it’s their fault. They have sneakily taken over most everything in North America and many other parts of the world. Anyone who has a problem with cheating [adapting to our situation] should go talk to them and not us poor people. By poor I mean anyone making less than 100k per yr. If you can’t pay for your car in one year or your house in 5 yrs you are poor.
Many still pay as they can for products. The industry is making money as “we the people” allow them. I suggest a boycott of all major labels, let’s see THEM feel what it’s like to be poor. Pay the artists directly.
I’ve been filthy rich and dirt poor a number of times over. Each time getting knocked out by those idiots. And as long as they hold power I/we will copy, burn, trade, give away, everything they hold dear. Especially their banking, corporate and personal information of doing wrong. They have declared War on the people of OUR Earth and they are not going to get away with it.
I hope this is abundantly clear to anyone who has a problem.
I sleep very well in the knowledge that my/our efforts are not going to waste and we are making a dent in idiots plans and that WE WILL WIN.
So RIAA, MPAA and all your related buddies can go suck …
Thankx for taking the time to learn
Enjoy
October 4th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
What ever in the world makes them thing that RealDVDRipper will enable this and that’s the only one that will do it? I got news for you. This has been going on since the days of VCR rental tapes and will continue as long as it is rented. VCR, CD, nor DVD makes any difference to the fact it still happens and is going to continue to happen.
This was going on long before this new ripper came out and only the ones that can’t figure out how to do it will buy into this Ripper. Those that know how to do it have no need of paying for anything for a ripper. There have been ripping programs out for a long long time now.
With the cost of the price of going to a movie, being held up with the price of concessions, the nastiness of the theater conditions, the idea that someone is going to sneak in…just in case you are camcording so that you are treated as if you are a criminal even though you paid to watch, the irksome experience of someone just having to talk on a cell phone while you are trying to watch what you paid to see, and the idea you are expected to sit through commercials when you paid to be there, none of which make the viewing experience worth the hassles.
So you do what millions do, you rent a movie, go home, watch it, record it in case you want to see it again, and return it. Don’t like that? Don’t rent them and it won’t be a problem with the rentals. Since I paid for the privilege of watching, don’t expect me not to get my money’s worth.
October 4th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
“The idiots [Morgans, Rockefellers, etc. and the secret satanic group they belong to] have caused this and it’s their fault.”
Let’s not forget government regulation. There are so many licenses and so much other red tape you have to go through for even a small business, it’s literally not worth it in most cases.
October 5th, 2008 at 12:23 am
all i got to say is:
i sleep fine, thank you
October 5th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I have trouble sleeping when I rent an awesome movie and have no means of ripping it…
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I don’t think RealDVDRipper will cause a great problem to the film industry. If it did it should not be done and to answer your question it would bother me.