It’s here. I got it. Went out and bought Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 1 just like I said I was gonna. I am proud to say that I love it. I love it so much I thought I’d put it on my Ipod. Unfortunately, getting a protected DVD onto your Ipod ain’t that easy. First of all, there still seems to be dispute about whether or not it is legal or illegal to copy a commercial DVD as a backup for your own personal use. From what I can gather it is okay to copy for personal use, provided you don’t override any digital rights management (DRM)copy protection such as the Content Scramble System (CSS). In other words, you’re not supposed to copy DVDs that are copy protected, and according to one poster even copying unprotected DVD’s and change the file format qualifies as copyright infringement. Well, you can rest assured that Lucas and company have copy protected their DVDs, and even though that means it can’t be copied legally, I don’t have a problem with them doing so. I am all for copyright protection. I am not in the business of pirating movies or music. I use to be, but that was before I understood that it takes away from the artists and the creators rather than the multi-million dollar companies that produce them. That was also before I came to understand how little most artists make, even the good ones. Unless you’re selling multipaltinum records, you’re barely making a living and paying off what it cost to make your record in the first place. I other words, I used to pirate music and movies before I realized that I’m taking the money away from the people I’d want to be friends with if I knew them.
So, as I was saying, I don’t have problem with Lucas and friends protecting their investments and their creative outlets. I just wish they’d grant me the rights to put it on my effen Ipod. I downloaded several DVD backup programs, none of which could copy protected DVD’s. I can’t even transfer the DVD directly to my harddrive anymore. I gotta admit, that’s a little upsetting. On top of that, no conversion program that might even possibly convert a DVD to Ipod format can convert protected DVD’s either. Consequently, if I want to put this on my Ipod, I’m going to have to resort to using heavy duty pirating software, which I don’t trust or like to be involved with. Or, I may even have to resort to torrenting, something else I’m not too keen on. Not into the I’m-sharing-bits-and-pieces-of-my-files-with-a-whole-bunch-of-random-people-thing. And I don’t like taking from those people and then saying, thanks, but I’m not sharing it back with other people. Even then, the movie itself is tainted. I will never really know if it has some kind of tracking or spywhere. Sure, my internet security software SAYS everything is okay, but is it really? Is that why my computer slows down, because everything is okay?
I suppose if I wanted to do the completely legal thing, I could go to Itunes and purchase the season all over again for $34.99. Are you kidding me? 78 bucks just so I can watch the damn thing on TV or my Ipod? Not only that, but for forty bucks, I don’t even get the featurettes or the production journal that come with the DVD set.
When I bought the Clone Wars movie, it came with a code for downloading the digital copy to my computer. Only thing is, when I went to download it, the code had expired. I’d only bought the thing that day. What kind of a deal is that. You can have the digital copy for your ipod, but ONLY IF you manage to buy it and register it with the first few weeks of release? Twenty years from now when my DVDs start to corrode, I’m going to be pissed if I have to buy another set. What if it’s out of print, or worse, locked up in the vault?
The whole thing is infuriating. Should I not have the right to at least protect my investments and watch it either in a DVD format or in an Ipod format? Sure I understand how difficult it may be to police this, but if you can give me a code so I can go online and download it, then why can’t that be available to everyone all the time?
I think, anytime you purchase a DVD, you ought to be able to go somewhere online, Itunes, or whatever, type in a code similar to a UPC code, but not visible on the outside of the packaging, and with that code you acquire one-time rights to a digital copy of the material on the DVD. Let there even be a choice of the file format you wish, but you only get one copy and maybe put limits on how it is transferable. Itunes is already pretty solid in how it protects music and other purchses through the Itunes store. I see no reason why this couldn’t be carried over to DVD digital rights.
So those are my thoughts on the issue. I find it ironic that when I started this article, I didn’t even realize that it was such a hot issue. I thought I was being original. Oh well, it just means there’s more of us out ther ready to Fight for your DVD Digital Rights! Let the war for my Ipod begin!
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