That's the message the MPAA seems to be sending to people with their successful suit to stop Real from selling a hobbled DVD copier. From PCWorld:

"You might think that making a personal backup copy would be considered a fair use exception to copyright law, but according to Judge Patel, the DMCA prevents her from even getting to that issue. '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,' she wrote. 'While it may well be fair use for an individual consumer to store a backup copy of a personally-owned DVD on that individual's computer, 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.' "

So consider what my motivations are now. I own a DVD set for the extended edition of "Lord of the Rings". Say I plan to take a long trip, and want to watch those films. The MPAA would tell me to take the discs with me - highly convenient, packing 6 DVDs along with the rest of my gear - or they would cheerfully sell me a new copy for my iPod.

Realistically, what are most people going to do? They'll Google "Rip a DVD", follow the link, and get a solution. So the MPAA would rather have that than a royalty paying customer (Real) that wants to ship a piece of software that limits you to backups on a limited number of computers. Brilliant move - I think the phrase they're looking for is "won the battle, but lost the war".

Technorati Tags: dmca, copyright, mpaa