Is Microsoft Cracking Down on DVD Ripping?

Microsoft is too big to and responsable to let people rip movies. If greedy people didn't go to websites to take others work we would not be in this mess so blame yourself. I rip my own cd's and movies are fine on dvd. Who cares? So you want to put movies on your i pod? get a real hobby. Music is plenty and you take that too. I know the music studios don't pay the bands but they do pay contracts to give them opportunity. I like that microsoft puts limits on their software. It probably increases the price of their software like vista and office though. I bought office home and student 2007 and it was 130 dollars. That used to come on computers. I do wish my laptop came with a copy of vista on cd. I had to buy DVD's to burn them. Have you seen those cd's High tech holograms and that little dot of rubber on them. What is that thing? If people were honest we wouldn't need locks and I could get a windows cd with my computer too. Thanks thieves you know who you are...
Merdith

Merdith, congratulations - you made me sign up here just so I could comment on what you wrote.

Not letting people rip their own DVDs is only hurting the legitimate customers! Those who downloaded the movie have no problem burning it to a DVD. This is only a nuisance for those with a bought copy! Also, copyprotection often means that Linux-users will not be able to play DVDs on their computer. It also means you can't back-up your children's favourite DVD, which soon gets covered in scratches and peanut butter. And why shouldn't people be able to view their movies on an ipod, or their mobile phone? By making it difficult to do, you only increase the chance of someone downloading a pirated copy. Good luck fitting Vista on a CD, by the way.

Big deal. Give it some time and someone will come up with a better replacement for DVD43. Crap like this is EXACTLY why I am waiting as long as possible to get Vista. I plan on getting a new computer a few months from now and I'm seriously debating if I want to go with XP instead. That way I get a top of the line computer with XP that will last for years and if I'm lucky, I can skip Vista all together and hope for the best with the next OS.

This is just a small bump in the road. As long as people want to rip DVDs and music, they will find a way. Someone will release a fix for DVD43 or a new program or some different coding to accomplish the task. On top of that, many people have multiple computers today, so if they really want to put the SP for Vista on a machine, then they can leave another machine without it. They could even just leave XP on another machine as well.

I just love how people love to point fingers at "all the crooks" who want to (God forbid) rip a DVD to a laptop HD so their battery life on a cross-country flight is more than 15 minutes or copy their DVD library to a HTPC for better storage... I agree with Magnusbe completely, how many people have bought a legitimate game only to have it refuse to install due to an installed DVD burner or some piece of software it doesn't like. All this copyright protection accomplishes is to punish the legitimate customers.

DVDfab works fine with the SP1 patch applied..

Meredith: Double congrats, I too decided to sign up just so I could comment on your foolish and moronic attitude. What's the point of having a video Ipod if you can't put videos on it? Not everybody who rips DVD's is a crook...if I pay $15 for a DVD that later on gets damaged, why should I pay again for it? I'll give you this, there is a minority who make a living copying and distributing illegal copies of DVD's, but if you're not causing anybody anywhere to lose money through your actions, than why does it matter? As far a Microsoft goes, I'm sure they did it on purpose, why wouldn't they? And of course they're not going to admit to it.

They are doing the same thing with XP. I tried ripping a dvd, that i owned, into the format that the iPod could read. I use DVD 43 and AVS for my ripping. I let it start and walked away from the computer because it usually takes around 1.5 hours. When I came back the next morning It still wasn't done.

Microsoft is not the answer to what ales you, the fact that you keep posting stuff like this is, people are going to do what is in there heart and bs'ing themselves into believing they are right. You want to screw people go right ahead, you want to extend a helping hand go right ahead, you want to shut up PLEASE. Be yourself and be proud

The way I see it, there's a problem in computing today - Vista.

And XP's not going to be around much longer, so what's a person to do?

I say try Ubuntu.

Problems solved.

Cheers,
Ghost|BTFH

Maybe they could have avoided this whole fiasco from the very beginning by making DVD movies and music CDs more reasonably priced. I think $5 for a music CD and $10 for a DVD movie is reasonable so that more people could have afforded them. There would be no need for ripping software. Musicians really don't make much at all from CD sales. I am not sure how much movie studios make off DVD sales but it can't be that much.

I personally would rather have an original and not a copy basically because the quality is not quite as good on a copy. I have quit buying music CDs (I have not bought one in more than 5 years) and I wait until DVD movies are in the $5 - $7.50 range unless it is something I just have to have, which is not very likely.

just my 2 cents...

I agree with puterdood, most all the illeagle ripping is done because of the outlandish prices charged for movies and music, I'm in China and where most of the people make 2000 to 5000RMB a month(1000RMB=130USD), how can they afford vista with a price tag thats a month worth of wages, and to watch a movie or not eat for a week, MSSKS enjoys being a bullie ask Mr Gates how he managed to squeeze out his partners, not a problem if your parents are lawyers

This article is absolute rubbish. Have tried DVD43 on my Vista SP1 build and it works fine. The author is just trying to either make a name for himself, or is being paid to promote a bit of software that no-one has heard of before, or is just incompetent.
PC World should be embarrassed to have published this PoC.

Puterdood, I stand next to you with the idea of not buying CDs/DVDs. In fact I have called a strike on buying CDs/DVDs and any music/video bought for a mobile device. Here's my reason, the RIAA claims that burning legally purchased CDs to a PC is illegal ( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071211-riaa-those-cd-rips-of-yours-are-still-unauthorized.html ) and purchasing music for a mobile device has so many restrictions (only works for particular device, can't burn it to CD to play in a car, confusing license backups) that it is not worth buying it. My brother owns hundreds of CDs bought over the years, does that mean he has to have all of them in the car if he wants to listen to them instead of burning one CD with MP3s for easier and safer use (don't have to shuffle through all the CDs)? I believe that CDs and DVDs should not have any copyright protection, that way they will be cheaper because record labels wouldn't have to pass the protection cost down to the customer....

Puterdood, I stand next to you with the idea of not buying CDs/DVDs. In fact I have called a strike on buying CDs/DVDs and any music/video bought for a mobile device. Here's my reason, the RIAA claims that burning legally purchased CDs to a PC is illegal ( http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071211-riaa-those-cd-rips-of-yours-are-still-unauthorized.html ) and purchasing music for a mobile device has so many restrictions (only works for particular device, can't burn it to CD to play in a car, confusing license backups) that it is not worth buying it. My brother owns hundreds of CDs bought over the years, does that mean he has to have all of them in the car if he wants to listen to them instead of burning one CD with MP3s for easier and safer use (don't have to shuffle through all the CDs)? I believe that CDs and DVDs should not have any copyright protection, that way they will be cheaper because record labels wouldn't have to pass the protection cost down to the customer....

...We always compare PCs to cars. You don't get arrested when you modify your car with turbo boosters, custom paint, or if you convert it to an off-road vehicle (CD to MP3 format idea). You probably will void the warranty for the modifications but it's YOUR vehicle and you can do with it as you please.

If you do use/distribute illegal music/video files then you should be prosecuted, but the punishment should be compared to as if you stole the CD/DVD from a store and not a ridiculous $9000/song as we have seen a few months back, there is a law that prevents us from cruel and unusual punishment....

...The RIAA can lose a couple of $million through illegal downloads but they can still make some money by playing nice with the legit customers. But if they'll continue to sell a restricted product then they will loose their legit customers. Think of it this way, would you buy any product that didn't meet your requirements and usefulness? For me some of them are: by buying a CD or a downloaded version, I want to burn it to PC (Linux and Windows) so that I can create a playlist with only my favorite songs; burn only my favorite tracks from multiple CDs to one CD so that I can listen to it in my car; make another copy so that I can load it into a portable music player (doesn't matter who made the device)....

...Ppsg69 you are being closed minded. Just because DVD43 works with Vista SP1, it doesn't mean that it will work on billion other PCs. The author and his colleague (2 against you) had problems and he as passed the knowledge to computer users that if DVD43 breaks down after SP1 install, SP1 might be at blame. You call him incompetent, proof yourself right by running DVD43 and SP1 on 1000 different PC and see if you won't have not even ONE problem.

...Ppsg69 you are being closed minded. Just because DVD43 works with Vista SP1, it doesn't mean that it will work on billion other PCs. The author and his colleague (2 against you) had problems and he as passed the knowledge to computer users that if DVD43 breaks down after SP1 install, SP1 might be at blame. You call him incompetent, proof yourself right by running DVD43 and SP1 on 1000 different PC and see if you won't have not even ONE problem.

The movie studios and record companies are simply trying to delay the death of their outdated and horribly corrupt business models. If Microsoft is helping, they better be prepared to go down with the ship.

Copy protection of any sort is bad business. It punishes the legitimate, paying customers for the misdeeds of a very small minority. These organizations (Microsoft and the movie/record companies) will either figure that out or they will die. It's that simple.

Need proof? It's been almost five years since I paid Microsoft even a penny of my money. In fact, my most recent transaction with them was when they paid me a paltry $300 settlement for their anti-trust misdeeds.

My last two systems run Linux, and all my future systems will until the time comes when Microsoft ends its monopolistic pricing and practices. It also wouldn't hurt if they began to care more about the people who USE computers and less about the weasels who would prefer that we didn't.

janekMZ - the writers point was the Microsoft had disabled the ability to rip DVDs in Vista SP1. Even if it works only on my PC it means that they clearly haven't disabled anything. This program and a number of others that rip DVDs work fine with Vista SP1.
This is just poor journalism - saying you've tried running one program and having problems on a beta test version of a service pack on two PCs, it must be big bad Microsoft blocking it. What about MagicDVDRipper, DVDShrink, DVD2Divx, Acala DVD Ripper, or any of the CuCuSoft DVD ripping apps - they all work too (I've just tried them on my Vista SP1 beta box).

Try actually reading what is said rather than throwing insults.

If it's for personal use, ripping a movie, in my mind, is doing no harm. You've paid to rent it in the first place anyway, so you've "done your bit" to support the industry.
Not all countries have the same laws as the US anyway.

P.S. The DVD43 issue probably was coincidental as it's a rather old application. I doubt that Microsoft would dare enter into the "policing" business, after all the fines they've been .paying in Europe.

First, like Magnusbe, I too would like to respond to Meredith. First of all, if you BUY the music, video or whatever to copy, you are not a thief. I buy all my music & video and I make copies for my use because too often, something has happened to the original media. That doesn't make me or anyone else who wants to copy their property a thief. Also, I have an IPod, that I purchased and yeah, what's wrong with wanting to convert your movie your iPod? I mean they make all of this stuff, charge us top dollar for it then, when we try to use it, we have all of these stupid rules and regulations telling us that we can & can't do. If we buy it, then give us an access code to copy or something!! Don't punish innocent customers along with the real thieves. Point the finger at the real thief, Microsoft. How dare they try to control every move a consumer makes and we are paying! In my opinion, it seems that all we have to do is not upgrade to the new SP1 or stick with XP. Problem solved, right?

Microsoft - If this is true which I can not say it is for sure I will watch the blogs and forums to see how this works out beforeI download the beta SP1 for Vista, sad I was looking forward to downloading the beta. I will wait now to see if this is true. You should remember who has made you the giant you have become, us the public. I will start trying out this program from Linux Ubuntu to see if this is something I could switch to and avoid your bully mentality. I have been a loyal user of windows and you are not being fair to us that just want to make backup legal copies of software we own!

magnusbe - I agree totally with you for us that do keep it legal and just want to have copies for our personal selfs so we don't wear out the originals. We all know how kids like to scratch our disks this is just wrong.

Ghost|BTFH - I also wanted to thank you for the suggestions on the Ubuntu proggram and I have downloaded and starting playing with this program seems pretty good so far.

What a load of crap. This article is completely false and full of untruths. It's amazing to see that so many people can be fooled by an obvious ploy to plug a commercial ripper.

DVD43 works perfectly with Vista service Pack 1. Just download DVD43 and try it and you’ll see what I mean. From what I’ve read elsewhere, DVD43 works for about 99% of the people who try it. It supports Win2K, XP and Vista (32 bits). This PW World reporter never made any attempt to contact Microsoft (I have friends involved in the beta development at Microsoft) or the DVD43 author (write to the author and he’ll confirm it).

So, PC World, do the right thing and print an apology for selling out or pull the article and hide your shame.

If the Motion Picture Association and Hollywood studios wants to put a stop to illegal DVD video ripping why don't they crack down on the companies that continue to manufacture and distribute DVD ripping programs that are available for $$ in most computer stores and commercial DVD ripping websites across America?

They do have the copyright protection laws on their side afterall, but they seem to be focusing their attention on the wrong crooks, not the ones that are actually promoting and profiting from the sale of products that enable the act of an illegal process.

Hyperdriver39,

That's good to know as I own a legitimate copy of DVDFab... Good stuff that software, totally worth the price.

Consumers will never, ever pay multiple times for the same content. Right now you have to pay each time to watch a movie on a DVD player, HD DVD player, BluRay DVD player, PSP, video iPod, MS Zune, mobile phone, etc. etc. How many times do we have to pay for the same movie? It doesn't matter what Microsoft does, until the Hollywood studios devise a reasonable way to charge consumers for content, there will be dozens of DVD copy software programs to rip, copy and convert formats. It is just this simple. The only way to stop DVD copying is to change the business model and address fair use. By the way, DVD43 is an antiquated ripper, it only address CSS protection and there are now over a dozen add-on protections on new DVD releases. In order to copy all DVD movies, you need a fully supported DVD copy software program like DVd neXt Copy or 1 Click DVD Copy. You can find all the best dvd copy software listed, ranked and reviewed at: http://www.dvdxcopy.com

Re to
"merdith January 18, 20081:02 AM PT"

Once again I can relate to someone who wants to get a copy of sofware or music before purchase. Another example for the books, I resently purchased a program called Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 after contacting the company online and asking them if there program will work with my 3 operating systems. They said no problem you can purchase online with them or go down to the local store and pick a copy. so I rolled on down to the store to purchase a copy, nice to be reassured even the sales guy said the program will work fine with vista, it turns out it's not compatible with vista after all. After contacting Acronis within 24hours they told me only thing I can do is wait for the next release of the program it should work better with Vista.. "That's fresh" Better this copy doen't even work with Vista.....I have recently joined the ranks, a new born if you will to burning without bullstick...