COPY MOVIES & MUSIC
Digital Media Q&A
WHY DO I NEED THIS GUIDE?
Whether you have kids who like to watch The Little Mermaid
while eating peanut butter and jelly, or you just want to enjoy
a Velvet Revolver track on your iPod, there are hundreds of
legitimate reasons an honest consumer would want to copy
or convert his movies and music. Unfortunately, because of a
legal loophole, even innocent acts can be illegal.
The problem is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),
which Congress passed in 1998. This atrocious piece of
legislation makes it illegal to circumvent encryption on
copyrighted material. As just about all commercial DVDs, and
a signifi cant number of commercial CDs, are encrypted, it’s
thus illegal to convert a DVD movie to a format that works
on your portable video player, remove DRM from a track you
purchased at the iTunes Music store to play on your Creative
Muvo, or even rip some CDs to MP3.IS IT EVER LEGAL TO DE-DRM MY MEDIA?
If you have to bypass any kind of encryption scheme to copy
your tracks, you’re violating the law as set forth in the DMCA.
However, as long as you don’t take the de-DRM’d content
and distribute it, it’s extremely unlikely you’ll actually be
caught and prosecuted.WHAT IS ‘FAIR USE’?
Fair use is an aspect of United States copyright law that allows people
to copy and reuse copyrighted material for certain protected uses—
including personal use. The doctrine of fair use basically allows you
to make backup copies, or even transfer content from one medium to
another, as long as it’s for your own personal use.
Of course, there’s a catch. If you have to bypass a protection
scheme in order to exercise your fair-use rights, you’ll be in violation of
the DMCA. It’s quite the gnarly loophole, isn’t it?WHAT IS DRM?
DRM stands for digital rights management, which is basically a
fancy way for content producers to limit the way consumers can
use different types of media even after it’s purchased! Content
providers argue that DRM helps prevent piracy, but we don’t buy
that. Because workarounds have been found for virtually every DRM
technology out there, DRM doesn’t slow piracy. All it does is make
it diffi cult for you, the consumer, to exercising your fair-use right, by
preventing you from ripping a CD, or converting a DVD for playback
on your PSP.WHAT CAN I DO?
It’s relatively easy to bypass most current DRM technologies. You can
either remove the encryption using a special utility, or if that doesn’t
work, record the unprotected analog output before it leaves your
computer.
As for the larger picture, you need to write to your
representatives in Congress and let them know that you don’t
take kindly to DRM technologies that prevent you from doing
something you’ve been able to do in the past. Don’t buy products
that include crippling DRM—that means no downloadable music
and no protected CDs (see page 32 for more on “protected” CDs).
And don’t hesitate to return CDs and movies that include DRM
technology if you accidentally buy them!WHY ARE HARDWARE VENDORS ONBOARD
WITH DRM?
It’s simple: If you buy music from the iTunes Music Store, which
only plays on Apple’s iPods, are you going to buy a Microsoft-
backed PlaysForSure music player, which can’t play iTunes
music, or an iPod, which can? By crippling your media with
DRM, hardware vendors marry their consumers to one hardware
platform—theirs.that include crippling DRM—that means no downloadable music
and no protected CDs (see page 32 for more on “protected” CDs).
And don’t hesitate to return CDs and movies that include DRMDRM, hardware vendors marry their consumers to one hardware DRM, hardware vendors marry their consumers to one hardware
platform—theirs.platform—theirs.
technology if you accidentally buy them!technology if you accidentally buy them!24 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC APRIL 2006