Hi all

I have recently set up a home NAS / media centre and bought some new “SMART” TVs. The TVs play my media over my internal LAN, they’re brilliant things.

I have a bunch of DVDs and BluRays that are now redundant but I want to host the content on my NAS. Do I have to buy some DVD ripping software to convert them to MP4 or MKV or would it be ok to just download already-ripped copies from the Internet? I don’t want to break any laws but it seem to me that I already have licenses for the media, so would this be classed as piracy?

To the non free thinking pedants you find on here … Most likely.

Reality . No

Downloading from the internet leaves a trail which could be followed. Ripping doesn’t. Neither will be legal.

Yes, the downloading is piracy.
You could rip the DVD’s you have and store the images (probably also technically piracy)
If you are going to download make sure you get decent quality and the right format.
Final point how often are you going to watch this great library of DVD’d and Blurays?
I kept all of your Discs when we moved but ditched the cases, I now have empty shelves and still never watch them.

by reality do you mean in a practical but not legal sense?

Exactly.

Its the sharing thats illigal – if your torrenting be very careful not to use a client that shares as you download.

Undermines the whole torrent system mind .

Ive had “the” letter in the past . Politely informed them via letter that as i was living in a tent in new zealand it was highly likely they had the wrong person 😉

Ripping to a more convenient format is fair use (imho), so long as you keep the originals.

Downloading (ie torrenting) too many will eventually get a letter from Warner Bros. via your ISP. Friend got that… so now torrents anything that’s not Warner Bros. Another friend got his Giff Gaff unlimited 3G data blocked for err exceeding their limits on unlimited data, downloading about 3 movies in the first 3 days of the contract.

You want to watch these yourself, not share them on p2p and you already own the physical media, correct?

I thought it was legal to create a ‘backup copy’ of physical media that you’ve bought.

I don’t want to break any laws

Sadly both approaches are “illegal” thanks to wonderful laws like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act

Bit crap really but that’s the free world for you.

However you’re really not likely to get done for ripping your own DVDs. How would anyone know for a start? The RIAA don’t do hme inspections (yet!)

Likewise if you’re sensible when downloading from torrent then they are unlikely to bother you (don’t share loads of stuff, consider using a proxy or at the very least PeerBlock)

DMCA doesn’t apply if you’re in Blighty. However, it’s not the act of “backing up” your media that’s illegal in the UK, it’s the breaking of the copy protection., which you’d do as part of ripping.

In reality though, if you have the original media, nobody would care and even if they did, how would they find out if you ripped them yourself. As others have said, ripping doesn’t leave a trace, downloading does.

DMCA doesn’t apply if you’re in Blighty.

Not the exact law but (my understanding is) we’ve adopted similar, from that Wiki page:

The DMCA’s principal innovation in the field of copyright, the exemption from direct and indirect liability of internet service providers and other intermediaries, was adopted by the European Union in the Electronic Commerce Directive 2000. The Copyright Directive 2001 implemented the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty in the EU.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Directive and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Act_2010

I would just do it, not really much risk involved for a few films.

I’d rip my existing ones personally, less chance of getting duff transfers, lowres copies etc. I can’t remember the details but there’s a way of tweaking Handbrake to bypass DRM, or if you want a simpler option anydvd has a 10=day free trial.

Now that’s settled you will want to know what software to use. I’ve not ripped any BluRays but for DVDs I have been happy with MakeMKV to rip and HandBrake if I need to transcode.

http://xkcd.com/488/

What’s the (current) story with tv programmes then? Illegal, I presume, but what’s the official justification?

there’s a way of tweaking Handbrake to bypass DRM

I think you need to have the VLC (I think that’s the name) player installed but I found it a bit hit and miss so only use Handbrake to transcode now.

Following on from xkcd:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

DRM is complete cobblers, pretty much every approach they have tried has screwed over (or at the least made it difficult for) legitimate users

GrahamS – Member

Following on from xkcd:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

As usual, bang on from The Oatmeal!

‘moar testicles’ 😆