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The DVD Dilemma

Three rewritable DVD formats are duking it out for your dollars. Is it time to buy?

Jon L. Jacobi

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The Law and You: Your Copy Rights With DVD

So you're considering a new rewritable-DVD drive or a new DVD recorder--just what are you allowed to do with them?

You already know that copying commercial DVD movies is illegal. All DVD recorders, DVD rewritable drives, and their media can recognize encrypted content and won't let you copy it. Forget making a backup of Gone With the Wind in case the kids use the original to play Frisbee. That fair-use rule might apply to software, audio CDs, and cassettes, but not to DVDs because the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes removal of copy protection illegal.

Programs that illegally remove copy protection exist, however, and even average users who know where to look can find them. Fortunately for the movie industry, using such programs is time-consuming, and still too pricey given media costs.

What the movie and TV industry fear is an MP3-Internet type of debacle. In a year or two, affordable rewritable-DVD drives and cheap media will be everywhere, and so will the temptation to record and trade protected content without paying for it. But video files are hundreds of times larger than their audio counterparts, so until broadband is the rule, nothing approaching the Napster situation is likely to occur.

Backing up data, recording your own home movies, transferring old VHS tapes--all those activities are allowed. In addition, you can record broadcast and cable TV shows for your personal use, just as you already can with your VCR.

But that may change. Many plans are in the works to protect broadcast content, and some capability currently exists. For example, most digital set-top boxes are capable of encrypting their content with Macrovision's scheme, which lets the broadcast appear normal but will not allow a flawless copy. All VCRs sold after March 2000 are Macrovision-aware, and DVD recorders are as well.

Consumer advocates and some legislators are now wondering if, in the effort to preserve content owners' rights, too modest an effort has been made to preserve consumers' rights. New legislation and court cases are in progress that may change the interpretation of the DMCA. Stay tuned.

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