TECHdodo

Real Networks has announced a new “legal” way to make copies of your DVD collection so you can carry it around with you on a hard drive. They call it RealDVD. While the ability to do this has been around for years, The advantage to this software is, they claim, it is legal.

What I find especially intriguing about this is that even though it is claimed to be legal, it still allows you to make illegal copies of DVD discs that you don’t actually own. If you had a Netflix account for example, you could make copies of DVD movies as fast as you could order them, or you could just borrow a disc from a friend and make a copy of it. You could just save them to a hard drive and then watch them any time you want. There is apparently some visual warning that you should only use it for movies that you own when you go to rip a DVD, but as the original disc is not needed later to watch the movie (that being the whole point of the software), there is nothing really to prevent it.

This is so far removed from anything that has ever been allowed, it seems impossible that this has been approved. However, one article I read stated that Real Networks licensed the encryption software for the product from the DVD Copy Control Association. Why would they provide a license if they didn’t agree to the product? The CEO also, however, stated they believed their product was legal citing a lawsuit from last year. This would seem to indicate, despite the license for the encryption software, that no one who owns CSS has said this is all OK. If it were, why would you need to justify your legality by referencing a lawsuit.

One thing I don’t understand about it is one of the arguments many technologies used for illegally copying or distributing copyrighted material have used over the years, is that just because they can be used for illegal purposes doesn’t make the company creating the software a criminal. Just because software can be used to share copyrighted content doesn’t make the software bad, if it can also be used to share legitimate content. The criminal is the one who used the software to share the copyrighted content. Copyright holders have fought this and fought it hard. That is why software that bypasses the CSS encryption used on DVDs is still illegal, as I understand it, because it doesn’t really have a legitimate purpose. Yet, here is a program that can illegally copy their content and it is OK. I doubt it. Basically, it sounds to me like Real is trying to circumvent the whole CSS issue by not decrypting the CSS and leaving it in tact.

Another argument that I have heard again and again, for why software that bypasses encryption should be illegal is because you didn’t buy the content, you bought the DVD. So if the DVD is encrypted, bypassing it so you can watch it somewhere else, or to make a backup, is beyond the scope of what you purchased. Since you bypassed the encryption, even though you bought the content and are the only one using it, you are breaking the law. If this software is legal, it legitimizes that when you bought the DVD, you did buy the content, and as the owner of that content, you can convert it to another format so you can watch it somewhere else. It sets a precedent that, to the best of my knowledge, has not been set before. It legitimizes that you bought the media on the DVD, and not just the DVD itself.

I think the idea behind RealDVD is a good idea. With the new slew of netbooks that don’t have any optical drive, being able to rip your movies to a hard drive could come in very handy. However, there is software that already does this, it is just they insist on calling the people who use it criminals, even if they are using it for the exact same purpose as this software. Why do I say the existing software is better? Because the RealDVD software doesn’t allow you to compress the data, I assume this is because the CSS encryption has to stay in place. This means it has to remain the same size it was on the DVD. With limited storage, especially on portable types of devices, this is a huge(literally) consideration. Also, even on hard drives where you have the space, you will be paying 4 times more, for the space to store it, than you need to. Also, you can only play it where you can run their player. That means if you don’t use a proprietary operating system, you are out of luck. Currently their system requirements specify this is for Windows only. If you want to use a portable media player, you are out of luck.

How long will it take the DVD makers to figure out what the CD makers already have. DRM is not sustainable. DRM is not enforceable. Not in the long term. DRM doesn’t protect you. DRM is an inconvenience to your customers, ESPECIALLY to your LEGITIMATE customers who are not trying to steal from you. DRM limits your customer base. You are excluding people who want to buy your content, but may not want to watch it on proprietary operating systems or with proprietary software. You can buy non DRM MP3 files now. This RealDVD program just goes to show that the MPAA still doesn’t get what the RIAA finally figured out.

The audio industry finally relented and started selling mp3 files without DRM. The video industry should just save themselves some time and do the same now instead of in xyz years when they realize that DRM doesn’t protect them from anything, and never did. The genie is out of the bottle. It has been for years. You can’t put it back in. Even if you create a new system, no matter how good you make it, it will be broken. This has been proven time and time again.

The sooner they realize this, the better it will be for everyone, including them. Well, maybe not everyone. Maybe it will be better for Real if they don’t realize it for awhile, because otherwise, there will be absolutely no reason to buy this product. If the concept survives the legal challenges though, it seems like it won’t take long for a whole lot of other look alikes to arrive. Of course Real probably has applied for patents on the idea and will probably try to sue anyone who tries to copy their idea on how to copy other people’s copy protected media, which would actually be kind of funny.