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Breaking the law: one-third of US residents rip DVDs

arstechnica.com — A third of consumers have made copies of DVDs in the last six months, according to new survey results from the US and UK. This number is up from a year ago, but a majority of these users say they only copy their own DVDs for personal use.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 9, 2008

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  • funnyboy88, on 07/09/2008, -4/+154Netflix + DVD ripping = Huge library of unwatched movies waiting for m....umm, my friend that does that.
  • Chris4, on 07/09/2008, -12/+108In related news - researchers announce that the sky is blue and water is wet.
  • rinpoche, on 07/09/2008, -3/+97In order to solve this horrible problem, we should just arrest and lock up 1/3 of the US population at random.
  • darkane, on 07/09/2008, -0/+65I can guarantee that far more than 2/3 of consumers in the US and UK are either incapable of, not knowledgeable enough to, or have no interest in making copies of DVDs. These numbers are -way- off.
  • AmateurX, on 07/09/2008, -2/+61The other 2/3 probably use P2P...
  • ProjectGSX, on 07/09/2008, -0/+54Im digging your comment because that is a neat although illegal idea and in no way means that I do this too. Or, rather, my friend.
  • MariusAgricola, on 07/09/2008, -1/+51"Despite the fact that the majority of DVD copying is for purely personal use, Futuresource's report will surely be used by the industry as further justification for strict DRM schemes and lawsuits against users. "

    Stupid monkeys never learn.
  • joshuaw, on 07/09/2008, -1/+45Sorry, I gotta call BS on this one. 1/3!??? Really, 1/3 of the people in this country don't know how to hook up a DVD player nonetheless copy a DVD. This number must be way overblown. Did anyone else go back to the original press release and notice Macrovision is the sponsor? Anyhow, I could not find any methodology, margin or error or other things that would make this a credible study.
  • jdames1980, on 07/09/2008, -1/+38I would bet it's higher than that, more like 2/3 do not know how to rip a DVD.
  • TEHxINTERWEBS, on 07/09/2008, -4/+40Do what you want, cause a pirate is free! You are a Pirate!
  • Redge, on 07/09/2008, -4/+39I never rip DVD, I'll just download DVD rips instead!
  • acrodev, on 07/09/2008, -1/+34Any law not based on wisdom is a menace to the state.
  • jesusfish, on 07/09/2008, -1/+31You can watch them.
  • shadeOfGrey, on 07/09/2008, -2/+29I just feel safe and secure knowing they're there.
    I mean my friend does.
  • pathouston22, on 07/09/2008, -1/+28You're doing it for the enviornment, right?
  • dullnation, on 07/09/2008, -1/+25You just blew my mind.
  • marksism, on 07/09/2008, -1/+24Yar-har fiddle-dee-dee, being a Pirate is alright with me!
  • trollick, on 07/09/2008, -3/+23Public Library + DVD ripping = Huge DVD Library for free
  • MadEnvoy, on 07/09/2008, -0/+20Shhhh, don't give 'em any ideas...
  • cam0man, on 07/09/2008, -0/+20I worked at a Blockbuster in college when they had their summer movie pass program. You could rent up to 3 movies at a time and as soon as they were back, you could get 3 more. We had a lot of customers back then, probably 3 years ago who did this and they were our favorite customers.

    Netflix treats it the same way, the best customers are the rippers because they return hte movies quickly and always keep them mint.

    The best part of the blockbuster gig was that blockbuster puts all the movies in their own cases w/ those security locks on them and we just throw away the originals. So not only did I collect over 900 movies that summer, but I had all the original cases too.
  • todddavid48, on 07/09/2008, -1/+19I call BS. I doubt 5% of Americans have the skill to rip a DVD or can connect a dvd player to a vcr or dvd recorder.

    They might have the skill to put a camcorder in front of a TV that is playing a DVD.
  • ciano, on 07/09/2008, -0/+16Do what you want, cause a pirate is free! You are a Pirate!
  • DreKor, on 07/09/2008, -0/+13Who do you think paid for the survey?

    There's no way these numbers are valid, simply because 1/3 of the US population isn't technologically literate enough to copy a DVD.
  • phore, on 07/09/2008, -1/+14Obviously not, as long as you post a torrent of your blu-ray rip. For backup purposes of course.
  • LordRahl72, on 07/09/2008, -1/+14I rip Blu-Ray movies does that count?
  • Dralite, on 07/09/2008, -2/+14Honestly, I didn't know one third of the US knew how to rip a DVD... but it's good to know so many people know about the things they can do... if only they would all say ***** the RIAA...
  • sexybobo, on 07/09/2008, -0/+11Yes you can.
  • pt4117, on 07/09/2008, -1/+12There is no way a third of people know how to rip DVD's, let alone do it. This survey has to be flawed.

    It doesn't say how the people were chosen, but I'm guessing it wasn't random phone calls. Probably an online survey marketed towards younger people.
  • nymphetamine, on 07/09/2008, -0/+11No one likes you.
  • freshyill, on 07/09/2008, -0/+11I'm a little bit hesitant to believe that 1/3 of the general population can figure out how to rip a DVD. It's probably more like 1/3 of people in the US have a DVD that somebody ripped for them.
  • DangerMouse9, on 07/09/2008, -4/+14So you think the majority of people copy DVDs to sell?

  • masterm1nd, on 07/09/2008, -2/+12The sky isn't actually blue. It appears blue (sometimes)
  • bman85, on 07/09/2008, -0/+10LOL you get the stupidest question of the day award.
  • Abomonog, on 07/09/2008, -0/+10I object! I haven't ripped a CD or DVD in at least 4 years.


    It's easier to just download them. :)
  • benologist, on 07/09/2008, -0/+10They're not copyrighting 1s and 0s they're copyrighting a movie. If all you want to do is play with numbers bashing your numeric keypad should be a viable alternative to watching a movie, right?
  • RudeTurnip, on 07/09/2008, -2/+11If I'm a lumberjack, is that OK? I sleep all night and I work all day!
  • catfish182, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9A netflix account along with a gamefly account makes life quite nice.

    for my friend of course
  • jull1234, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8other than the obvious pack rat mentality (which I totally sympathize with), it could just be a strategy of 'buffering" as well. Rip the 3 dvd's you have, send them back, watch the content during the turnaround time, repeat as desired.
  • NewMediAroused, on 07/09/2008, -1/+9This just means the film companies should take note... YOU ARE CHARGING TOO MUCH MONEY FOR A DVD!!! If DVDs were $5 here (like they are in most countries) nobody would go to the effort of ripping them!
  • Mononuclear, on 07/09/2008, -3/+11Yeah I just download DVD rips, watch them on comp and then delete them when done. I don't want to waste DVD's.
  • withears, on 07/09/2008, -2/+10Breakin' the law, breakin' the law.
  • JudgeMonkey, on 07/09/2008, -1/+9You make it sound like that isn't also a painfully OBVIOUS idea. Wow, renting movies and illegally copying them... that's new.
  • superjenn, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8*dramatic action music* You wouldn't steal a car! You wouldn't steal a purse! You wouldn't steal a cell phone! You wouldn't steal a movie!
  • surfacewound, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8So what, he gets a new P.O. Box every time he changes the card? I find it hard to believe Netflix would keep giving out free trials to different new accounts that all mysteriously have same address, and paying for all those P.O. boxes would just be stupid.

    Or you're just lying.
  • arjie, on 07/09/2008, -3/+10I understand. However, digital media is not alone in that respect. Books can be photocopied (more relevantly, scanned) with ease and without damage to the original. Hence if that logic applies to abandoning copyright for digital media, it must also apply to books.

    Removing the protection of copyright.would hurt the small man more than the capitalist. In the absence of copyright protections, if I made a work of art that some publisher believed had the potential to be popular he could take it and make money off it without a penny coming my way.

    Do you really believe that you must have the right to do what you want with any filmmaker's DVD movie? Honest question. If you answer yes, it means that it is unlikely that we may convince each other and we should just go our ways in peace.
  • Homest4r, on 07/09/2008, -2/+9The number is definitely smaller than 1/3. The other day my dad wanted me to search a video on iTube and download a song off of YouTunes. He's a pretty quintessential example of about half of americans understanding of modern technology.
  • adamroach, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7Thank you. I was waiting to read that.
  • TheInformer, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7Remind me again of the percentage of people whose VCRs/DVD players have a flashing "12:00" on them?
  • scott88008, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6Now that's clearly unethical. Especially with multiple cards. A person with multiple credit cards should have the wherewithal to flow a little money back to Netflix.
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