Lol, that's a pretty ironic statement if you really think about it Dave. Sounds similar to digitally ripping audio from a copywrited CD and then being able to convert it to a MP3 file, to make it compact enough to upload it on the internet so that 1 million people can then download it and then burn it back to a CD. Hmmmm....Sonic Foundry doesn't have any software that has the ability to do that do they? :-)

The recording industry and new technologies always are walking on a thin line of what IS and ISN'T illegal. I would have to say, every recording engineer in the history of recording has bootlegged a piece of copywrited material. I know I've done my fair share. Anyone else?

The real crime is really being done by Sony and Phillips. They are the developers of the CD and DVD formats and have copywrights and protection schemes to stop you from copying the data on them. Every company that developes a CD player,DVD player,CD or DVD, has to pay royalties to Phillips and Sony because they are using their technologies. So any other company that makes a CD player pays Sony and Phillips. That's a lot of electronic companies, some of them I have worked for and it's really an unfair advantage when you're trying to price compete for business against Sony and Phillips. I don't agree that a Storage Media should have the ability to be copywrited. Sony and Phillips did not invent the idea of being able to store data...they just invented the media format to put it on and everyone decided to use it. I don't believe the inventor of Analog Tape is getting royalties from everyone that makes a cassette, or cassette player or any other tape device!!! It just doesn't make sense to me why another company would have to pay a developer of a format, to make a device that plays their format.

So that's my rantings about DVD copy protection. I'm sure someone will develope a technology to "rip" DVD's, I've received a few emails of companies claiming to have software that does this....if it's legal or not, that's really debatable. My feeling is the crime is being done by the developers, so F^@* 'EM!!!

Rednroll!!!

I have used the technology to go back and recover video from DVD's that I made and then blew away the source. I found later I needed it again. That is about the only 'legal' use of the technology. A discussion of it is at www.vcdhelp.com.

As kkolbo stated www.vcdhelp.com. should be able to help. I think from there I once found http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/dvd2vcd.html which is a nice little package. But let me state that I have used this software to rip files from DVD's I created ONLY. I have the Pioneer A03 and found it really helpful to be able to rip the vob files off my self-created dvd's and convert them back into .avi.

Hope that helps.

Everything you need to know is explained in detail at www.doom9.org.

Yes it's possible to do it. I do all the time.

Have a look at this article on the register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23736.html

Actually I'm glad that Philips finally votes against these stupid copy protection schemes used on "Audio CDs" recently. I remember an interview in computer magazine where a spokesman of the record industry was asked wether selling Audio CDs that use copy protection but have the "compact disc logo" on it (which stands for the red book format, which has no copy protection) was a legal thing: in a very arrogant way he said that it was totally legal. Fortunately now Philips complains saying
that those CDs are _NOT_ audio CDs. I also agree with the Philips manager saying that in his eyes that so called copy protection is actually just a mechanism for stopping the playback of music. If that stupid Digital Copyright Millennium Copyright Act (and soon the law here in Europe as well) puts such stupid mechanisms under the protection of the law then I really don't know where this is going to lead us. Next year they'll probably use 1-digit passwords to protect their content, stating that trying to find the right "key" (you have ten choices) means committing a crime.

i've ripped plenty of dvd's too, but i haven't successfully found an easy path to DV format. Vegas doesn't seem to like the MPEG-2 files that come off the DVD, so i can't render from within Vegas.

have you had much luck actually using the MPEG-2 footage from a DVD within Vegas?

- ben

Well, I'm not looking to break the law. I can understand if the encryption scheme is proprietary, but the actual video footage I'm looking to snag is public domain, WWII propaganda films created by the US government, all paid for by taxpayers.

Since my original post on this, I discovered there are several programs to "rip" DVDs, some free and some retail. All available on the WWW.

So if its illegal, take it up with the authors of those programs. Its illegal to copy copy-protected CDs too, but by golly there's software out there written just to do it!

I'm not out to turn a buck with this stuff, its just for my own entertainment.

So if its illegal, take it up with the authors of those programs. Its illegal to copy copy-protected CDs too, but by golly there's software out there written just to do it!
--------------------------------------------

since you mentioned it, i'd like to correct you there... using a program that was written by someone else to commit a crime doesn't make you less guilty. you are responsible for your own actions.

and i think this is related to that type of attitude. why did you post your question here and use up a lot of peoples' time, when you could have found the info on your own by putting your subject line into a search engine instead of this forum?

i appreciate your participation... i just wonder sometimes.

All this protection scheme stuff is a bunch of crap. It's only obsticles for people who are going to find another way to steal it, if that's what their intentions are anyways. Basically if I can view it, I can take a good quality digital camcorder and record it, and then reproduce it. If I can hear it, I can take a good quality microphone to record that too. I can tell you this much, I just returned home from a trip in Brazil. There are THOUSANDS of vendors on the streets and store business owners selling American music CD's all recorded on CDR's,with laser printed Jackets. Also the same for VHS movies, Software, and Video games. I could have bought any software, CD, or movie I wanted for about $2 and Yes Sonic Foundry's software was there too being sold for about 2 bucks for Vegas and Sound Forge. And there isn't a law in the U.S. or Brazil that is going to stop them from doing it. It was actually harder for me to find legitimate copies of this type of material than pirated copies.....sad but true!!!

Rednroll

the music/movie producers want their own convoluted production/distribution methods to persist as long as they can. i mean the whole system of production, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, finding space on the store shelves. lots of people make lots of money in that system, and it allows the production companies the most control over what the consumers have access to. the internet, napster and mp3's, and all that stuff really rocks their world by circumventing their prized system. so they make wasteful attempts at preventing people from doing the 'wrong' thing. as Rednroll observed, the people will have their music however they can get it, and if you can hear it or see it, then you can reproduce it and distribute it illegally.

i believe the record/movie companies have to be more flexible and provide more and more different and _easier_ ways to get legitimate product into people's hands instead of focusing their efforts on pointless digital protection schemes. but they would rather pour their resources into developing methods of keeping things the same, because they know their powerful position will be compromised by the new emerging electronic distribution methods.

- ben