Let’s say that I own a DVD of videos from a band. For some godawful reason, my computer chokes whenever I have the DVD running and I can’t do anything but run the DVD (i.e. trying to use other programs causes dropouts in the DVD and performance issues in the programs). I’d like to listen to the songs on their own without necessarily clogging up my system.
The first question is: is it legal for me to rip the audio tracks to my computer for personal use? Is there something about separating the audio and the video that would make this not a backup copy (or whatever the term is that would allow one to rip a CD for personal use) and thus illegal?
I’ll wait for an answer before asking the second question.
Unless you have permission (and it’s unlikely it has been granted), you are violating copyright when you make a copy of the audio.
Technically, you are not allowed to rip a CD, even for personal use, without the permission of the copyright holder. I know this isn’t enforced, but there is no law granting blanket permission to individuals to copy CDs to a hard drive. Some downloaded music (from places like iTunes) can be legally copied to CDs for personal use (under certain restrictions), however.
First of all, the DMCA pretty much mangled all the rules of thumb we previously used to determine whether we were in violation of copyrights. Under some provisions of the Act, backup copies are no longer permitted. This might be easier to sort out if the Act were not so internally inconsistent.
IANAL but, IMHO, you can (morally) do just about anything you like with your DVD so long as there is no redistribution of anything on it to others. If you just want to play back the contents in your own home for your own pleasure, there’s not any reason to suppose that the copyright police are about to knock down your front door. Unfortunately, the letter of the DMCA says differently. When a law is stupid, patently unenforcable, and contrary to what is understood under common law, ignoring it is sometimes the only choice.
If, OTOH, you intend to pass any copies of said audio rip to any other person or entity, you are definitely in technical violation and treading on morally unfirm ground.
If you live outside the US, well, your local copyright law probably makes some sense.