We have a whole Otter Forum for that.

I won't disagree with you that it is illegal, but I am not sure discussion of copying is barred because it may influence someone to do it. I always assumed the founder is a) morally opposed to copying an/or b) concerned that this site may be implicated in a copyright infringement lawsuit. The founder is taking the high road to keep his ass clean. Smart if you ask me.

For the record, if you have to break the encryption on any digital media, even if you own it, you are breaking the law. It is silly but that's the DMCA for you.

I don't like to encourage piracy because in the end I end up paying for it. Whether or not you believe it, that's economics 101. We ALL pay for the losses of piracy. This post is sort of... looking down the nose-ish at all of use here. If you want to pirate movies, google the word "warez".

They are similkar in that they are both felonies. Obviously blowing up a bomb is more serious. But, for now anyway, "ripping" a DVD is illegal and you'll have to deal with the leagal ramifications if you do it.

This horse has been beaten more than the Cincinnati Bengals, but no matter how much you and others would like censorship to REQUIRE government endorsement, it doesn't.

Perhaps it would be helpful to you to refer to the definition of the verb form of censor rather than the noun, which does indeed get a bit stickier, but is not really relevant to the question.

And the usual sharks smell the semantic censorship blood in the waters and move in for the kill...

DJ

You're right. DVD Talk DOES censor you. Just as they censor certain curse words or ethnic slurs, they censor talk of certain natures. The point is, as a private entity they are fully within their rights to do it. It is NOT a violation of your First Amendment rights, as most people who use the word "censorship" want to imply. If you don't like the rules, you're free to go somewhere else. It's that simple.

gah. when did i ever claim dvdtalk was abusing my first amendment rights?

haha. mm. blood.

all this over a semmingly innocent question.

don't people think it'd at least be cool to watch episodes randomly?

Semantics isn't a bad word. It's all in how you use it.

Kris

"without sounding too much of an ass, i think the truth is most people don't want it here because they spend obserds amount of money on buying originals, and get angry when someone who doesn't care as much about covering/labels just gets a pirated copy."

Actually Kris.. what I care about is the potential of DVD pricing going through the roof for originals. $10 - $20 per disk is acceptable. $30 - 40 or higher per disk is not. Piracy kills consumers, period. Look at the CD market.

I find the DCMA so egregious that I'm proud to disobey it and break the law. Beyond that, I buy tons of DVDs and CDs (and rent) and I still routinely copy and share. Not to mention downloading. I'll continue to do these things with no remorse until I die or am forced to stop. Perhaps it's because I was an avid buyer, renter, copier and sharer of analog media--long before they decided to rewrite the laws against the consumer in favor of the conglomerate. By their definitions I am a pirate, and I feel no regret about it.

All that said, I would never discuss how those things are done here, nor would I say anything to jeopardize Geoff's relationships with the media giants his success has brought him in partnership with. I am happy for his success and the success of this site. With that success comes an increasing need to follow the rules of mainstream commercial media, whether those rules are just or unjust.

Snicker.

Nice to see that you've bought hook, line and sinker the bullshit line that the RIAA has fed consumers about how piracy keeps CD prices high. That's only the most recent line of propaganda, BTW - when CD's first came out at a very high price (10-12 bucks over the normal album price of about 7-8), they claimed that cost so much because the technology was new and that once the CD replaced vinyl, prices would come down.

Yeah, THAT happened.

Or perhaps you heard about the price fixing that the government busted the studios on a couple of years ago? You know - where the studios kept the price of CDs artificially high?

Or how about the studios claiming record losses even though CD sales have been pretty strong this year.

Or how about that the reason CD sales have leveled off is that over the last few years, people have finally finished purchasing all their old records on CD. In short, consumers have finished double dipping their old stuff now.

Believe what you want - just don't propagate the lies that the studios are trying to pass off as gospel.

The same is true of "censorship."

RichC

Exactly!

People were using Censorship wrong and I didn't get in on ground floor on that discussion? Man, having a job really does suck!

Please, people using censorship wrongly. Don't ever use that word again. kthx.

So you are being "censored" because DVD Talk frowns upon talking about stealing things. Nice logic.

More like Michael Moore Logic.

That's actually exactly the case.

Is it state censorship? No. Is it illegal? No. Are his rights being trampled? No.

But is he being censored? Absolutely.

i think i've repeatedly tried to make it clear that i own the dvds i was intending to use for my question. i may've even offered to take pictures to prove it.

you're reacting to the content, not the context. if you tried the latter, you'd realize stealing isn't the word.

amused at the michael moore jab, but offended i've been likened to him. lol.

See, when threads are locked, I feel that rather than to try to discourage actual copying, what's really being discouraged is discussion of this nature.

I'd much rather have a healthy discussion about this rather than a mere, "it's the law. End of story" thread locked scenario.

An informed citizenry IMO can decide that their best interests are not being served by their represntatives in Congress and could actually object to this asinine law that makes even 'fair use' copying/backup into a crime.

yeah, I realize there is a lot of industry on this site. Big deal. I know the DCMA law is in THEIR best interest and perhaps THEY object to people actually discussing it and worse, disagreeing with it. It just seems rather knee-jerk to instantly lock up threads where people may actually start discussing this law. Makes you wonder who's interests this site is really concerned about.

As far as the argument that to even discuss topics of this nature encourages piracy, I don't think i've gotten any closer to gleaning insight as to how to copy a DVD, even after 2 whole pages of discussion.

Wow, yet another thread with people debating the definition of "censorship"? Haven't had one of those in a few days.

You are breaking the encryption which according to the MPAA is the whole point about the stealing arguement. I'm sure the owner of DVD Talk would agree. Listen, people come in here all the time saying "I want to learn how to copy DVD's but to make backups of DVD's I own." Those threads get locked. Why? Not because 90% of the people that say that are lying but because if we talk about that it is enabling other people with the knowledge of how to do it. I'm sure you are telling the truth but that doesn't really matter when someone else could read how and then go rent 50 movies and copy them.

Why do people always come here asking the "backup" question anyway? I'm not the most net savvy person in the world, but when I got a burner, I found the solution myself in about two seconds. Some people must really suck at the internet.

^^So true

it was a quote from 24. So I could care less if you like him or not, but the only link is a silly catch phrases.

Cultshock has it right. Why is it that only morons can't figure out these things by themselves? I'm not going to ask an open forum how to do something that can be potentially illegal. People asking how to download material. I mean really, if you aren't smart enough to figure this stuff out by yourself then you really shouldn't be doing it.

i'll buy that.

the thing was, i wasn't really intending to back up my dvds (lord, the HD space i'd need....) locking the thread prevented discussion not on the issue of copying, but the goal i had in mind. and as a result, discussion of legal methods, if there are any, for achieving my goal could not be discussed.

and the "if there are any" is why i said somewhere that i'd have to break the law to uphold the law. i'm lazy, and don't want to explain it. but i'd need to know very well how dvd encoding, encryption and programming is done. basically, how dvds and dvd players work