What gives? You can burn your audio CDs legally, why not your DVDs. It comes down to a technicality: CD is not a protected format and DVD is. Years ago in the Cassette tape era, the Library of Comgress gave us fair-use rights to copy albums to cassette for personal use. In effect, we had paid for the intellectual property on the album and and were just moving it to a different media for convenience. That's why it's legal to burn your CD's to your iPod today.
But DVD's contain numerous electronic locks that developers figured out how to crack. Still, it's technically a protected format and the LOC has ruled that you have no right to remove the intellectual property that you've already paid for off the DVD, even for fair-use activities such as backing it up or putting it on your iPod.
So if you owned a movie in a non-protected format you could? It appears so. But to my knowledge there is no unprotected format you can buy movies in, except maybe VHS. What about iTunes videos? Again, it's a protected MP4 file. Apple has worked diligently with the motion picture industry just to allow you to put a movie on your computer, Apple TV or iPhone. Apple also arranged for you to have the right to back up your protected MP4 audio and video files from the iTunes store.
What happens if you run across a free movie online in an unprotected format? Still illegal. Since you don't have a purchase agreement with the copyright holder, you're breaking the law. This is the same reason that you can't share music online. If you pay for personal use, those rights are technically not transferable to someone else, with the exception of iTunes tracks, which you have licensing for one five computers.
But what if you buy a used CD or DVD at a flea market and just play it. Is that even legal? We probably don't want to open up that can of worms. And how is it that a beautiful piece of software like Handbrake that makes burning DVDs to top-quality iPod formats exists? Gray area of the law my friend. Handbrake is free for Mac, Windows and Linux users. It's public domain software so no one is making a profit off it. It uses code that technically doesn't break the locks on a DVD. The creators don't encourage burning for anything but fair-use of content.
Could the authorities give you just as hard of a time over using Handbrake as other software that does break the locks? You bet. For now if you want to keep legal, it's best to buy your movies from the iTunes Store. In case you didn't know, they're available in different sizes for your iPhone as well as stellar quality for Apple TV.
Why Burning DVDs is Illegal
