Is it moral to rip and sell DVDs?

Moireach

The law was just playing catchup with a digitial age where some of us owned dozens of legally bought DVDs but we didn't even own a DVD player anymore and wanted to be able to watch them on our laptops which don't have a disc drive and our tablets without having to legally buy them again (which wouldn't exactly be very fair). Ripping for personal use is beyond dispute in my opinion.

Selling on what you bought all those years ago (as opposed to buying with the intention to rip and sell) would have no effect on the stakeholders in the DVD (in contrast to piracy) as it makes no difference to them if what you are selling second hand has been ripped or not, and selling second hand itself is legal.

However since the law does prohibit selling what has been ripped it is wrong. Aside from the law I suppose I would still say it is wrong to protect from buying with the intention to rip and sell on.

Lumstorm

It is not hard to work out when you buy a DVD you buy a license to view that content, once you sell it on you no longer have a license to view the content therefore any copy you keep is a pirate copy. So no it is not moral to rip and sell on you are fine to rip for your own use as long as you keep the original.

I have ripped the soundtracks from concert BDs to listen to them on a PMP but I still have the BD to watch.

The law can be behind the times when it comes to fast moving technology back in the late ninties at the beginning of DVD appearing there was a backlash against importing discs from the states with police raids on shops that sold imports.

Moireach

Lumstorm wrote: »

It is not hard to work out when you buy a DVD you buy a license to view that content, once you sell it on you no longer have a license to view the content therefore any copy you keep is a pirate copy. So no it is not moral to rip and sell on you are fine to rip for your own use as long as you keep the original.

I have ripped the soundtracks from concert BDs to listen to them on a PMP but I still have the BD to watch.

The law can be behind the times when it comes to fast moving technology back in the late ninties at the beginning of DVD appearing there was a backlash against importing discs from the states with police raids on shops that sold imports.

Yeh good point about the license to view.

Lord_Baltimore

Not long ago a DVD might cost you 20 quid; nowadays a DVD might only cost a tenner, and yet a profit is still being made. Is it morally wrong to charge 100% more than you need to make a profit?

What you sow, so shall you reap.

Lumstorm

Lord_Baltimore wrote: »

Not long ago a DVD might cost you 20 quid; nowadays a DVD might only cost a tenner, and yet a profit is still being made. Is it morally wrong to charge 100% more than you need to make a profit?

What you sow, so shall you reap.

I used to buy DVDs a lot cheaper like a couple of quid from the likes of reel.com but the retailers couldn't continue to sell cheaper than they bought the stock.