I recently came across a program online called DVD Next Copy which allows you to make “backup” copies of DVD’s easily. Their site asserts that this is “high quality, cutting edge technology, without rocket science.” If that statement is true, someone at that company should be up for a size-able raise. Besides, how oddly refreshing might that be in a program?? (Even advanced power-users like me don’t prefer any more complication than necessary.) But, as they say: if it sounds too good to be true… yeah. Well, I take that back—some software actually works well. That’s the kind I’ll pay for time and time again. I just wish that that were more commonly the case. Eh. So is copying your DVD’s legal? First of all, this whole question goes to the concept of intellectual property, copyright, fair use, bla bla bla. Not that those things don’t matter, but lately I think a lot of us (I, for one, at least) have been thinking that the proverbial tug-of-war starring intellectual property protection rights (in this corner, lol) verses the general right to (and definition of) “fair use” has swung too far to the one side. The side of legalism, that is. Suffice it to say that intellectual property rights are in the lead by a long shot, and that the majority of consumers are annoyed.
So back to copying DVDs. I love to pose questions and then negate the relevance of my own question. I do this for effect, to show that we, as a society, tend to ask the wrong questions for the right reasons. With that in mind, the “right” (relevant) question is whether it’s ethical to make copies of another person’s intellectual property without their permission. The ethics behind it is the purpose of their being a law in the first place.
Quite obviously, such laws weren’t put into place arbitrarily just to annoy everyone living in the 21st century. The protection of uniquely created work is an important one, a protection worth fighting for when the time is right. However, the problem, as I just mentioned, is that here in the 21st century we are dealing with archaic laws that don’t match up with the general consensus of popular opinion on subjects like intellectual property rights. And anyone who thinks that the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) solved everything, and now we can just smile and move on with our lives, has another thing coming. (If that’s you, the rest of us strongly urge you to get your head out of your you-know-what!) Let’s face it: the forefathers could never have even dreamed about something like the Internet. Nor could they have foreseen the impact it would have not only on our way of life but also on our school of thought. It wouldn’t be that far-fetched to say that the Internet (coupled with our embracing it as a society and its integration into our culture) is arguably the biggest revolution to ever occur in all of history. If not “thee” biggest, then at least one of the top, like, 5. Its impact on everything, including copyright, is more than apparent. Most of us think it’s a good thing.
My topics may not be fully congruent with where I take them, but they get your attention. And that’s the idea. The idea right now, at this pivotal point in history (and I love saying that—it makes me feel like this is the perfect time to be alive!) is to start a dialog. I think that has always been the idea. I think that dialog is always at the forefront of revolution. There can be no revolution without dialog. But because we are at a moment in time when revolution is on such a hair trigger, starting a dialog is what I like to call a “necessary buzz word.” (Buzz ‘phrase’ might be more appropriate here, but it doesn’t have the same ring.)
The idea of a DVD copying program is, one would hope, to preserve the playability of the commercially burned discs in your existing DVD collection. And I think (whether the law would reflect this currently or not) that such application falls directly under the concept of fair use. However, I once went to a friends’ house (who shall remain nameless) and he had an entire bookshelf full of DVDs in blank cases. I asked what they were and he said, “movies.” He had downloaded or copied them from rentals. How wrong is that? Lots of people have downloaded a few songs, but an entire bookshelf of DVD’s??? Granted he wasn’t selling them, but still… I think something like that shows that there does need to be some system in place to protect intellectual property rights. But that doesn’t mean the current laws don’t need to be re-examined and re-negotiated. Because they do.
But yeah, I guess DVD Next Copy makes the whole process easy, if you want to copy “your” DVDs. (I’m definitely not telling my nameless friend about it, though. He’d probably try to download it off a torrent.) But anyway, I think we should all get DVD Next Copy and “backup” our DVD collections. (Don’t be copying those Blockbuster or Netflix rentals, you heathens!) Brush your teeth and go to bed. End of story.
