Actually, it’s the most straightforward (and thus, by Occam’s Razor, the one to be presumed as the starting hypothesis) explanation for how they knew that this particular duplicating software had been used.
So wait, now it’s illegal and morally wrong to have software on your computer that you can use to make yourself a back up copy of media that you purchased and keep that back up copy in your own possession?
Since when?
Apart from the splash screen, IIRC DVDXCopy also injects the program’s serial number (an possibly other info too) somewhere in the DVD. Using that info, they can track down the person who copied the DVD from their customer database.
First off I can think of atleast 3 FREE products that do the same thing this program did, only better and easier. So no big loss.
Secondly, yes, this latest trend by the Movie, music, and gaming industry is going to spell the end of their own industry.
Recently someone in the business made a speech to others in the entertainment venue, I don’t remember the story exactly but it went somehting like this:
Picture your average mom. She buys a Disney DVD for the kids, but doesn’t want them to brake it or ruin it in some way, so she decides to exercise her rights and make a backup copy and use that, store the original in a safe place.
She goes to her computer and pushes the copy button. Only, wait, it won’t allow her to copy the DVD.
Hmmm, the industry has succesfully stopped a legitimate customer from exercising her rights.
Now what does she do? She might leave it at that, but with the internet, and people becoming more and more computer savvy, the mother is likely going to easily find a way to break the encryption on the DVD online, or a computer savvy friend might help her out and let her in on some the available technology.
Odds are, that while doing this, she’s also going to find out that she could have downloaded the same movie for free online, and never again have to go through the trouble of backing it up.
The bottom line is, these systems are NOT stopping the pirates.
It is delusion to think so.
The only people that are bein buggered by this nonsense are the LEGITIMATE customers excercising their rights to a LEGITIMATE backup copy.
Nice.
Well, the other purpose it serves is to keep ignorant people ignorant. Those who are just barely savvy enough to copy CDs (insert CD, start Compaq Magic CD Copier, click Next until it’s copied) might now think it’s impossible to do the same for DVDs.
Yes, they do.
One of our DVDs that we watched only twice mysteriously wouldn’t play the third time we went to use it. Careful inspection showed a hairline fracture through the centre. As we know that it was never mistreated or handled roughly, our WAG is that either there was a manufacturing fault that was aggrevated by use of the disk, or that somehow clipping the disk back into it’s case did the damage, or a combination of both. The disk is completely unusable now, computers and DVD players won’t even recognise that it’s in the drive. It’s a $30 frisbee.
Some of our other disks were damaged, although not destroyed, by our DVD player. It developed a fault that caused it to drop the disk at the wrong time when you ejected, so the disk was stuck between the tray and the slot. The only way to get it free was to pull it out, scratching it. We replaced that DVD player because it started doing it all the time, but the new one has done it once and my friends have complained of their DVD player doing the same thing. As I said before, they were merely damaged, not destroyed, but the potential was there.
I discovered a long time ago that having our CDs in the car lead to them being destroyed through mishandling, poor storage and so forth so now we only carry homemade copies of our CDs and our originals sit safely at home in pristine condition. This has worked really well for us. I would like to be able to do the same thing with our DVD collection. I don’t use DVD X Copy to make backups of my DVDs, but how long will it be until they pursue the makers of the software I do use? And another gripe - some computer games won’t run on computers that have virtual drive software installed. How can they get away with that? There are legitimate uses for virtual drives - I use them so I don’t have to change CDs every two minutes while I’m using my genealogy databases, which also prelongs the life of my expensive CDROMs. I get very annoyed because I don’t see how they can take my money for their product and then set it so it won’t run if I have another, unrelated software product installed on the same machine.
Earlier, you said this:
Where is the word “professional” in there? But when I point out that pirates do indeed use DVD X Copy, you change the argument to “Oh, uh, well…professional pirates don’t do it.” As though there were such thing as a professional pirate. Debating you is like trying to nail a turd to the wall.
Dude, that’s about the worst misuse of Occam’s Razor I’ve ever seen.
But didn’t we already establish that the splash screen is easily defeated? Would not the serial number insertion also be easily defeated?
Fair enough. I’ve never had a DVD fail, but it certainly sounds like it’s common for you. But here’s the thing - the purpose of the lawsuit was not to prevent people from making backup copies, but to stop bootleggers. I understand that you want to make a backup, but if other people are using the software to illegally profit from selling copies, shouldn’t they be allowed to stop those people? If you guys can prove to me that nobody ever used this software for pirating, then I’ll concede that it was stupid to disallow it. But so far, all we’ve got is a lot of assumptions and some nonsense about Occam’s Razor that doesn’t apply.
I am not sure its ilegal to have the software on your drive , just that the company in question was shutdown, unless you crack the password thingie , its only good for 3 to 10 installs, just like the old tax software used to be.
And yes , they would rather you replace your copy , legally purchased , with another one , legally purchased , instead of buying dvds in bulk and burning your replacements.
Besides , I believe they crouch it in language that says , you are granted a license to use this software , rather than you own it.
Declan
It been apearing that the lifetime of a CDROM , which has been out since the mid-eighties , its not quite what they first told us , so its not such a stretch to assume that the makers of the DVD’s are going to be equally long lived.
I for one , would not even attempt to debate that. Given oppurtunity , people will cheat , lie , steal and plunder. This is just another means of doing so. What they really have done , is to blur the distinction between theft and not theft.
What they should have done , was to drop the suit on all ten companys , or what have you , or in waves if the industry is short a few pennies and set the tone that way. Right now , all they look like they have done , is to target people that they can find , rather than the mass produced piracy dudes, just to show their investors that they are pursuing the villains to all ends of the earth.
Declan
There are, but not many in the US, as far as I know. Mainly in places like China.
Sure… by suing them as individuals. Banning the software because some pirates use it is like banning knives because some muggers use them.
Sorry for so many posts in a row, but there’s a lot to address here. I really can’t let that go, because it’s not true. First of all, it hasn’t been established whether “fair use” allows one to make a copy. If you go back to the article I cited earlier, you’ll see that:
Second, the law expressly forbids disabling the copy-protection mechanism, so the software is ipso facto illegal. Thus, appeals to fair-use rights are irrelevant from a legal standpoint. You may or may not have a right to make a backup copy, but you don’t have the right to that particular means of making the copy. From the article:
[emphasis mine]
And again, it’s by no means a given that you even have a right to a backup copy. Even the author of the article, who OPPOSES the DVDXCopy ban, doesn’t think you have a right to a backup copy:
So to say that the companies who sell DVDs are preventing customers from “exercising their rights”, isn’t really true.
Actually, you can disable copy prevention mechanisms (such as Macrovision), but you can’t disable access controls. CSS is an access control, though, so your point stands.
Yes, I already conceded the point. You cut off the rest of my sentence, starting with the word “but”…
Perhaps it’s impossible to do it your way. What if there are millions of pirates - you would have them file millions of lawsuits?
Meh , sorry blowero
Declan
Well I’m not surprised that an organization whose slogan is “defending freedom in the digital world” would take such a position, but my point was that it’s not a given. Like I said, it’s hotly contested. That means one side believes it’s a right, and the other side does not. I find it far more interesting that in MY example, a person who has written an article supporting YOUR side of the argument has nonetheless conceded that you don’t have a right to a backup copy, than YOUR example where a group vehemently committed to your side of the argument makes a predictable statement along partisan lines.
Oh, and sorry for my lack of understanding of the technical details. I was trying to paraphrase the article, but I guess I didn’t do a very accurate job.
I sure would. Just like if there were millions of knife muggings, I would expect them to arrest the muggers, rather than banning knives. If it’s good enough for the music industry, it’s good enough for the movie industry too.