'Are you a knock-off Nigel or Nigella?' poll discussion

[Deleted User]

The files i download are intended for the Iphone - they never have DRM applied to them. Therefore, i don't circumvent or remove the DRM from the content.

There does not appear to be a T&C section specific to the Iphone 'feed'

PrinceGaz

You're a "knock-off Nigel" if you breach the copyright conditions of the file you downloaded or files bought on a disc in a store. I have no idea what the "fair-use" terms allow you to do with content, such as making a backup copy for personal use only (I certainly hope so).

Making a backup of a DVD does not require breaking the encyption on them; as with most discs you can just burn an identical raw image onto another disc without even bothering about the copy-protection as the protection is copied over intact and it plays normally.

I would say (and I have NO legal training) that you are entitled to backup any disc you have bought, either as a reserve or replacement for the the original disc, so that in the event it is damaged or becomes unreadable, you can use the backup disc instead. Many discs are difficult to make a true backup copy of (especially games) which can complicate using the backup copy when it is needed (in other words, you'll have to use a crack), but if there is any danger of the original disc being damaged, then it should be legal to make or obtain a usable copy of it. When you buy a movie/game/music/whatever, you are not buying the disc- you are buying the right to use the content on it, so making a backup copy of what is on it for your use only when the original has failed does not break any rules in my opinion.

before_hollywood

personally speaking i use my sky+ to record onto dvd, nothing off sky movies cos i dont subscribe to that, just bbc, c4, itv etc.

£7 for 25 discs, a couple of quid every so often for labelling pens and wallets to store discs in, works out about 30p a disc.

see, knock off nigel is ripping you off

i have paid £3-5 for knock off discs before i was able to do things this way, i couldnt when i had freeview only as my dvd recorder wouldnt allow things to go from hard drive to disk but sky does, some knock off disks were fine, others awful

I'm_With_Stupid

I've never owned a copied DVD. And I can't be bothered to wait for them to download.

I have some copied MP3s though. I can't download the legal ones, because my MP3 player won't play all these fancy file formats. Not that I'm making excuses, I'd do it anyway. But I might at least buy some more if they removed the ridiculous limitations on the ones they do sell, and had them at a more reasonable price. They should never be anywhere near the price of CDs. I used to buy loads of CDs before our only record shop closed down. But as it is, it's less hassle to download illegally than get the music legally. As soon as the music industry fixes that, I think they'll get a lot more customer back, rather than trying to impose more and more restrictions on things.

But considering that the people who make the thing have to impress me to get any money out of me, I'm not going to give money to some bloke in a pub for copying something I'm quite capable of getting myself for free. I do spend a fortune on DVDs though. And I buy the albums I enjoy. I downloaded all of Sigur Ros' albums illegally. I've since bought them all on CD, and paid to see them in concert. They get their money eventually.

Steve-o

G for me, mostly the hi-def versions - download, watch, erase.

If it's a film I'd buy anyway, I'll buy it rather than download. If I've seen it at the cinema already, I probably wouldn't bother downloading it.

Steve-o

Steve-o wrote: »

G for me, mostly the hi-def versions - download, watch, erase.

If it's a film I'd buy anyway, I'll buy it rather than download. If I've seen it at the cinema already, I probably wouldn't bother downloading it.

ETA: I'd never buy a copied film. If I'm going to spend money I'd rather spend a couple of extra quid and get the "real deal", rather than pay someone for just clicking 'Burn' on their copying software. :rolleyes:

PrinceGaz

I think the market for pirated DVDs (and CDs) is pretty much dead now as everyone either can do themselves, or knows someone able to, download and burn a decent quality CD or DVD of pretty much anything. If they have the original disc it is very easy to duplicate exactly, and the only complication with starting from your own disc is with dual-layer DVDs, because it is preferable to re-compress the desired content so it can be burned onto a single-layer DVD, as dual-layer recordable DVDs are still ridiculously expensive. There is software which can automate that step making it a non-issue.

Fortunately, I think the selling of pirated discs won't re-occur with Blu-Ray as unlike HD-DVD which was more affordable before becoming obsolete (and being almost given away after it did become obsolete), Blu-Ray players are still quite expensive, and of course require an HDTV to use as well. By the time Blu-Ray has a low enough enttry-cost for piracy to be considered, Most households will have a PC and broadband connection, and either they or someone they know will be able to burn the movie onto a disc. It will be the availability of Blu-Ray burners (and the cost of BD-R discs) that determines how piracy of HDTV movies proceeds. One thing for sure is that it won't be the copy-protection on them, as all levels of that will be cracked as needed.