Legally copying DVDs to a laptop

wa8yxm wrote:
One of the areas where I hang electrons, and occasional works for publication, (yes, I do that) is a Music "Forum" where musicians and fans hang out, This includes composers and authors(Technically I fit there since I have a couple of postings on the songs archive) Fans (my primary mode) and artists (Do a bit of that too). The result is that copyright ad copying is heavily discussed there.

Recently (Seems like the last decade but may have been a bit longer) they came out with something called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

This made major changes in the rights of we the consumers to copy stuff.

one of the things that really bothers me under this act is the automatic inclusion of DRM (Digital Rights Management) codes on recordings.

So. I write a song (Wade in the Menus) I (with a bit of help from Juanita Coulson since it has 2 parts) Perform the song.. My Recorder sits on the far side of the room (There is a reason you want it FAR from Junita but that's a funny story for another time)

I CAN NOT MAKE COPIES OF THE RECORDING!!!!!

I will not tell you my opinion of that,, I have no desire to melt your monitor.

You were using the WRONG "recording" equipment.. You were using CONSUMER recording equipment..

PROFESSIONAL recording equipment HAS NO DRM.

Professional DATs and standalone CD recorders do not add DRM nor do the recognize DRM.

CONSUMER DAT and standalone CD recording equipment HAS DRM built in.

Consumer digital recording equipment adds DRM and does recognize DRM..

Big difference.

Case in point is Sony's "Mini disc" recorders, great portability, records to a very small disc.. but it had one major flaw.. direct digital copying is protected by DRM..

When consumer CD recorders hit the market (Philips) there were CDs available that would record in that machine.. It required a special CD-R which had a special code string embedded in the disc.. Put in a regular computer data CD-R and it would spit it out.. I know, I bought one and found out this after the fact.. I took it back to the store and got my money back.

Then I made some calls to PROFESSIONAL audio shops, found out that I could buy PROFESSIONAL CD recorders which could record on regular CD-R data discs. Yep, my Marantz Pro recorder cost three times more than the consuer Philips did but it was worth it..

By the way, you can buy portable recorders now days that record to SD cards in MP# or WMA files and they DO NOT add DRM to the files.. Note that they will not play any WMA files which were purchased with DRM..

Sangean makes a real nice portable MP3 recorder, Zoom makes some real nice pro portable recorders also.. I have both brands..