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In Reply to: Whether it's illegal or not depends. posted by DAT on March 11, 2002 at 13:14:55:
Last time I checked, lending wasn't illegal, in the US.I have an Apex DVD player that allows me to preserve my right to fair use of copyrighted works (i.e. it allows you to disable macrovision, so you can make copies).
I have used this to copy DVDs to VHS, which I *lend* to friends who lack DVD players (or with only non-region 2 DVD players). Personally, I don't see any difference between this, and directly lending them my DVD, so long as I'm not watching the DVD (and no one else is watching other copies of it), until they return the VHS copy I made.
The DCMA makes it illegal to manufacture or sell a device which, as its PRIMARY function, circumvents copyright protection mechanisms. If South Carolina Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings had his way, I would be punished for simply owning a device CAPABLE of being used to make illegal copies of copyright works (whether protected, or not).
Just remember, our consumer rights will continue to be eroded, until we fight back. It's ultimately the consumer/voter who draws the line beyond which corporations/politicians dare not cross.
Follow Ups:
You mentioned that your Apex player allows you to "disable" the Macrovision copy gaurd on it. Is this something that is an open feature (shown in the manual) or is it hidden and you happened to stumble across it?
I'd love to be able to do that on my Sony player!
Who says the cheap players aren't worth anything?
Dman
It's in a secret "loopholes" menu. You can set it to any region or "all" regions. It even plays PAL discs on an NTSC TV and vice versa. Obviously, they won't admit to having left the menu there on purpose ("it's for testing - honest!"), but if not for that, I'll bet Apex would still be virtually unknown, in the US.Other than that, the player works alright, but feels really cheap and shoddy. They also have reliability and heat problems.
A friend has a Shinco model DVD-380, with the same capabilities. You can find people who've described how to replace the video DACs, in some players, with versions lacking the capability to generate the Macrovision signals. You can also pay like a 300% markup to get name-brand players already modded to be all-region and/or macrovision-free.
Perhaps the best solution is probably to use a PC + ripping software, but I don't know much about that. Ideally, I'd like to be able to buy R2 DVDs, from Japan, and burn copies with subtitles (downloaded from the web) onto copies, for watching on my home theater, or at friends' houses. However, even though I guess the CSS descrambling issue is solved, I don't know how specific the encoding of menus and whatnot is to the specific geometry and layout of the disc.
Anyway, I have lots of good reasons for wanting to bypass these protection mechanisms, but the industry cares only about protecting profits - not consumer rights. Indeed, this isn't surprising - just depressing.I sure wonder what copyright legislation will look like, in 10 years. The day may eventually come that I simply refuse to buy any content that I find to have protection that's too restrictive or invasive.
I can access the service menu on my Sony player, but there is nothing like that- DAMN!!!!
Dman
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