I always cringe when I see articles on line similar to the following article from Reuters (Big media seen playing hardball with Apple). Specifically this quote:
“If there isn’t any video you want to watch, the device itself is worth less money,” Forrester analyst James McQuivey said of the iPod and other Apple products, such as the Apple TV set-top box and the iPhone.
James, you just don’t get it do you? Most people who own video iPods who want to have their DVD’s on their iPods just use one of the many programs that allows people to RIP DVDs. Not to say that I do this because it would violate the DMCA. However copying what you already have purchased is legal under US copyright law, so long as its not digital in nature. DMCA says you need to repurchase. That aside there are many many ways which people use to take their pre-owned content and make it available on their digital media player. Most of them are quite easy.
For example Handbrake. I use this application at work to make rips on internal DVD’s so I can have the animation as reference. Its not to say however that you could use it to make a copy of your DVD of Akira, say and load that video file on the iPod. In fact most music is obtained this way. For every iPod sold only 10 songs have ever been purchased in the iTunes store. Those who have iPod videos and use it for Video know about this, it doesn’t take a genius, just Google.
Here is the riddle, how come its okay to copy a digital song on you CD which you purchased, but its illeagal to copy a DVD into another formate which you purchased? iPod users have many ways to get the video they want on their devices, not to mention James totally neglects the rise of Pod casts, most of which are shown on the iPod and rely on Apple’s standards. Next time James McQuivey of Forrester, do your research.
