Ripping my DVDs

Still no baby

I have hundreds of CDs sitting in a cupboard in my living room that are 1) never played, 2) never looked at and 3) collecting huge amounts of dust.

But I have no intention of selling or giving them away. Why? Because I have every one of them on an external hard drive attached to my computer - I’ve ripped the lot of them and still continue to rip every new CD I get.

I’ll then either transfer them to my iPod, play them directly from the computer or burn the tracks I want to a CD that I can play in the kitchen or bedroom.

This is how I personally choose the use the media that I’ve personally spent a considerable amount of money on. Something I purchased for my own personal use. I don’t share my music over the internet, I don’t make tracks available for filesharing - I just use it the way I want to.

But at the moment I’m still breaking the law. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 it is illegal to rip music from a CD and put it on your computer or transfer it to a digital device - which is plain and simply bollocks.

Not only is it a giant pair of hairy ones it’s also completely uninforcable, totally pointless and a waste of a statute book.

Fortunately the government have realised this and when they’ve finished the consultation that will let the labels and rights holders bleet on about rights and copying - they’ll change the law and I’ll no longer be doing something illegal.

But all the articles I’ve read on this subject (Google News) talk about CDs and music - none mention DVDs. In fact some of them go as far as to talk about it being EVEN MORE ILLEGAL to circumvent copy protection and DRM.

So if thats the case - on one hand I’ll be legally allowed to rip one form of media but on the other a criminal for ripping another form of media to put on the same device. Phooey!

I’m currently going through my DVD collection - also in the hundreds - and ripping them (episode by episode for TV shows) to another external hard drive to a format that will work on my iPod and still comfortably play out from my computer.

This will eventually mean I can leave the DVDs in the same place as the CDs - a locked cupboard - and watch them all either on my iPod or streamed from my computer directly to my TV through a pre-set playlist (the whatever I fancy tonight playlist).

Why should it be illegal for me to use content in the way I want to that I’ve already paid for?

Why should I be forced to buy another copy of a song, movie or TV show on top of the one I purchased on CD or DVD just to be allowed to play it on another platform?

I hope this consultation will lead to DVDs and CDs being put on the same level - If I can rip one I should be allowed to rip the other. I paid for the rights to use it, I’m keeping all the originals and am not selling anything or giving anything away.

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