New software on market to evade DVD-protection law

AP , NEW YORK
Saturday, May 08, 2004,Page 12

US court rulings have pulled the most popular software for copying DVD movies off the market, but a new program, already on sale at CompUSA and Wal-Mart is trying to get around these rulings and still let users duplicate copy-protected discs.

The new software, called 123 Copy DVD, sells for as little as US$19.99. Out of the box, it won't copy the vast majority of commercial DVDs, which are protected by encryption. However, the manufacturer, also called 123 Copy DVD, has a Web site with a link to another site that contains a piece of decryption software. Users can easily download that patch, which allows the program to copy any disc.

Steve Thomas, vice president of the manufacturer, said that the site with the decryption software is unaffiliated with 123 Copy DVD.

But that claim is contradicted by Web site registration records, which show that both 123 Copy DVD's site and the site with the patch are owned by the same company, Bling Software Ltd, which has a Gibraltar mailing address.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/05/08/2003154641

I have a laptop and travel alot. So I rip the movies to the hard drive on my laptop. That way I don't have to lug around the originals to watch on the bus. I do the same with games. If they want to remove my right to use my purchased DVD in my computer I will not buy their products. I also make backups since we have 3 year old twins that trash DVD's. The originals are hidden and the kids only use copies for our home DVD player. FAIR USE!!