UK To Finally Legalize Ripping CDs and DVDs 92
An anonymous reader writes with news that the U.K. government will finally legalize the copying of data from CDs, DVDs, and other types of media for personal use. This will allow U.K. citizens to legally make backups and digital copies of their media, which has been forbidden by copyright law previously. The changes will go into effect this June. It also grants permission for people to upload the ripped media to a remote host, though sharing of course remains illegal.
"The mismatch between the law and public opinion became apparent through a Government-commissioned survey, which found that 85% of consumers already thought that DVD and CD ripping was legal. More than one-third of all consumers admitted that they’d already made copies of media they purchased. Besides the new private copying rights, the upcoming amendments will also broaden people’s fair use rights. For example, people no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized."
Re:What about copy protection. (Score:5, Informative)
You should stop giving them money. Besides the inherent silliness in paying for a product you know to be broken, you're also financing the next ACTA or TPP.
Buying DVDs is donating to the Taliban of copyright law.
Re:Good luck (Score:4, Informative)
This relies on the player to look for Cinavia. Blu-ray players do. That's about it. Your rip doesn't work on the bluray player? Pop it on a USB drive and play it on the TV, or via a media centre over the network, or via a DVR.
I run RaspBMC for my media centre. Do you think the XBMC community is all giddy at the opportunity to include such a user friendly feature like Cinavia?
Re:Good luck (Score:5, Informative)
Cinavia is usually only used on the North American release of movies, so as long as you rip from a clean source (e.g. European release) you are fine. I have modern equipment that allegedly supports Cinavia and have not had playback issues with torrents. As usual the pirate version is better quality than the paid one.