Prior to 2004, companies such as 321 Studios’ produced software that enabled you to copy commercial DVD movies, including those that were copyright protected. However since then things have changed and these companies have been forced to redesign their software to adhere to CSS copy-protection laws, which contradict the U.S. Copyright Law’s fair-use clause.
In early 2004, 321 Studios’ products were deemed illegal by a San Francisco federal judge, not because they enabled consumers to copyrighted DVD content, but because the company’s software was able to penetrate commercial anti-piracy technology. 321 Studios’ was then forced to change its software line in order to adhere to the judge’s decision. Today, 321 Studios’ still produces copying software, but these products are now unable to copy commercial DVD movies.
“While it is legal to copy commercial DVD movies you have purchased for personal use according to the fair-use clause contained in U.S. Copyright Law, it is illegal to break the CSS copy-protection mechanism that is used by most commercial DVD’s, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”
And when you really get into the nuts and bolts of both of these laws, it seems that they contradict each other. Therefore, at some stage in the near future it is expected that the fair-use law will either be amended to correspond with the CSS copy-protection Act or that the CSS copy-protection Act will include a fair-use clause.
However if you would still like to copy commercial DVD movies there are many freeware and shareware software programs that you can use in order to back-up your DVD movies. As a neutral representative of your rights, this blog neither encourages nor dissuades you from using software to copy commercial DVD movies, especially when you may be breaking the CSS Copy-Protection Act when doing so.
There are now many products on the market that are able to copy, but many do not have the ability to copy commercial DVD movies, therefore before downloading or purchasing any copying software you need to check its capabilities, especially if you wish to copy commercial DVD movies.
