A federal judge has ruled that while consumers have a right to make a backup copy of a DVD for their own personal use, nonetheless, software to actually make that backup copy is illegal. According to US District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel:
The court appreciates Real’s argument that a consumer has a right to make a backup copy of a DVD for their own personal use. A federal law has nonetheless made it illegal to manufacture or traffic in a device or tool that permits a consumer to make such copies.
The judge granted a preliminary injunction to take the product off the market, but a date has not yet been set for the full trial.
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This is exactly the outcome that the recording industry was hoping for when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998. You want to blame someone, blame Congress for passing it (unanimously in the Senate) and former President Clinton who signed it.
Isn’t that kind of like making pot legal, but outlawing rolling papers, pipes and bongs? Okay, maybe not quite. There are always dry, brick-hard brownies, I suppose.