this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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I have heard in the US is illegal to bypass copy protection or encryption on DVDs which is required to digitize them.
The DMCA prevents breaking encryption but you can still create an ISO from the disk.
For which you need a key to unlock "your" locked copy. Breaking the lock would be illegal. Making your ISO useless.
Not as useful but still perfectly usable. Just not editable
What? That's not true at all. You can just burn the iso to disc or use software that's paid the license fee.
It's stupid bullshit but perfectly possible.
What good would copy protection be if all you have to do it replicate it exactly? You're not correct.
Are you telling me you can't burn DVDs?
How do you think they even make DVDs? Do you think each one is unique or something?
What good is copy protection if all you need to do is hook a tape recorder up to the DVD player?
The system is stupid and ultimately futile. Is it really shocking that such a system produced a weirdly easy to bypass copy protection?
It's not an impervious technical hurdle, it's a legal protection. You can legally do it by using software that has the license to do the decryption.
Can you tell me what point you are making? I thought I was being crystal clear but I'll try again:
Breaking the encryption is illegal. That is circumvention of the protection system and therefore is specifically illegal. Playback is obviously "decryption" but that is the intended use, so it is quite clearly not illegal.
No one said anything you are implying was said. All that was said is this ^
Was not said to say that it's impossible to break. Nothing like that was even closed to implied. It was said because you claimed all one needs to do is copy a disc and it will work. Which is hilarious because the implication would be that they developed a copy protection system that literally did: not almost nothing, but precisely nothing. Go ahead and try to clone a hollywood DVD. I tried it too back in 1999, because I just knew I understood everything. Guess what, that doesn't work. You have to break the encryption.
It prevents changing encoding formats and that's about it. It's bothersome for pirates but hardly a challenge.
If you needed a special key to run a disks then there would be a monopoly on DVD players.
I don't know why anything but those two facts would matter at all.
The first one. The "useless" part. ISOs can be used extremely easily.
Yes, by ~~decrypting~~ breaking the encryption on them, which is breaking the law. You know, the thing you said wasn't true? Pointlessly spinning this up into an argument that makes no sense to have.
Decryption isn't illegal. Bypassing encryption without a license is illegal. There's a difference.
When you play a DVD you're decrypting it using a licensed piece of hardware. Windows and Mac both have dvd playback licences (or they did, it looks like Windows now charges extra). A fair bit of software either comes with a license or technically requires you to buy one.
https://vlc-user-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/latest/support/faq/legalconcerns.html
Specifically the portion on commercial or broadcast usage.
When I said "decrypt" I simply meant "break the encryption". Which colloquially were used interchangeably back when this topic mattered a lot more. I guess the software I used called "DVDDecrypter" was probably made by idiots according to you, because that wasn't specific enough. Clearly such a name could imply that it was a DVD player and not a ripper. lol
False. US law does not make it illegal for companies to implement copy protection, quite the opposite. Playing it back is the entire point for the user and the only reason the company can make money. US law makes it illegal to do anything whatsoever to circumvent any kind of mechanism designed to protect intellectual property. This extends to cases where only some asshole lawyer would even pretend to believe it's justifiable (such as making it illegal for you to service your own farm equipment).
I don't know if you're lying or misinformed, but spreading misinformation here won't be further tolerated.
The AI company does copy an image of the book but digitally transforms it into a form they can use. You can't transform the dvd into a form you can more conveniently use (like MP4) without illegally breaking encryption.
Yeah I think given they're reselling others works for profit is clearly illegal, I wish more judges were agreeing with me about that.
An encrypted unplayable copy which is far worse than having no copy. For that copy to be anything but a waste, you have to break the encryption which is specifically illegal.
You can still play it, it just requires a different device or an emulator. DVD players aren't some secretive dark magic.
Really? Because everyone here thought they were!
The data is encrypted and legal, or it's been decrypted which is illegal. That is what was being discussed here. You're trying to make a pedantic argument about it and I'm growing weary of that.
Because it absolutely is illegal
you forget we all practice bird law here
Hey, btw, did you get that thing I sent ya?
Thing? Sorry I didn't sleep last night and I got Shanghai'd into being in a 3 hour gig/funeral I was not awake enough for this morning. I got to like season 3 I think.