The joy of modern entertainment

Because I very rarely actually do convert a DVD into a movie file stored on the hard-drive (anyways, this is nowadays only allowed for non-content-scrambled things), I never can remember how to do it. Interestingly though, I am not really sure if I am allowed to write here how to do it in the first place, since German laws (§ 95a UrhG, to be precise) are trying hard to forbid me to do so. At least that is what I get from it, but then who knows what that paragraph actually means.

This is of course a complete lunacy. But what isn't when it comes to modern entertainment and the digital age? Using the things one bought, in the way one wants is not at all what the industry even remotely cares about. I am not talking about wild copying of things, that you should not do this is understandable; we could get into a very lengthly discussion whether giving a copy to a friend already qualifies as 'evil', but I don't want to go into this. Certainly just giving anybody a copy is and should be illegal. But at the same time it is clear that no, I repeat NO, technical means will efficiently ensure that. So all technology geared towards preventing wild copying fails miserably in doing it but quite successfully ensures that those who actually buy the material are not allowed to use it the way they want. I am quite curious how long it will take for the system to collapse.

Now, coming back to DVDs: Yes, there is something like CSS, which supposedly protects the content. It even did, for a few days. Nowadays it just does nothing. You can use your favourite search engine to look for ways how to circumvent it and will extremely quickly find the answer. At least in Finland the courts are nowadays leaning towards not accepting CSS as a working copy-protection mechanism (technically it never was, it scrambles the content). So far there is (to my knowledge) no such ruling for Germany.

Anyhow, technically there is nothing that prevents me from actually copying the movie I want from a DVD to the hard-drive. It works, it works well and it is relatively simple. So I can still use the DVDs I buy as I want to. I am just hanging in the air when it comes to whether I am allowed to write a how-to. But then, those exist out there and are easy to find.

The story is completely different for the new high resolution things^a: a whole chain of encryption is trying desperately to not let people ever get to the content, HDCP, HDMI, whatever, you name it. Lets see how this will end. I, for my part, will not buy anything that locks into this chain. I'd rather read a book then (and maybe make an exception for new computer hardware).


^a: You know, those that were sold as 'the best' last year for the football championship and are now replaced by the 'even better' ones which support the really high resolution (but then the players don't, but this is good, you are supposed to keep completely replacing your living-room technology every three to four months.