Chris? If you've Authored DVDs, on a Professional basis, then I can assume you've actually read those nifty little FBI and Interpol notice cards that we have to put on the from end.
Does it say it's OK to Rip the copy protection, copy the Video TS folders to your HD, Rip the Streams, re-edit the streams so you like it better, then reauthor and reburn the DVD?
Here, just in case,
http://www.voicesinc.org/blog/wpcontent/gallery/fbi_warning.jpg
I guess I missed your legal argument in that.
Again, the case under this Ruling has NOTHING to do with your argument about making personal back-ups of a DVD you bought.
If you are a professional DVD Author, I'm more than a little surprised that you would condone illegal duplication and illegal altering and distribution of DVDs
I didn't write that I am a professional DVD author. I wrote that I have authored a number of DVDs. There's a difference.
You entirely avoid the legal discussion by simply labelling each activity "illegal". I want to know why something should be illegal for one video format that is legal for another? I'm not denying that DVD copying may be illegal, but asking the larger question of why. If making a backup copy of a DVD is illegal simply because the industry created copy protection technology and said "No!", then I would argue that this is extremely bad law. It segregates the rights of artists based on the format of their product. Authors of the printed word are not similarly protected from having their work copied. Heck, they have copy machines right there in the library. But an artist who produces DVDs gets enhanced legal benefits that generate additional sales, since the technology itself creates an additional right for him.
If that's really the legal situation, then that's one screwed up set of laws.
