DVD copying is a murky, controversial, and highly sought-after process. We wade into the fray. No doubt you've been flooded in the past year with e-mail and advertisements touting a "remarkable" piece of software that backs up commercial DVD movies to CD or even to another DVD. Curious? DVD copying is a tricky but intriguing process; let's see if we can break it down.

First, consider the murky legal issues. The right to create copies of the media you've purchased for personal use is a long-accepted facet of the "fair use" doctrine in U.S. copyright laws (at least, it used to be).

Editor's Note: Many users presume that Australian copyright law follows the US model, but this isn't neccessarily the case. Proceed with caution, don't presume that just because you're a single user you won't be prosecuted, and seek the advice of a lawyer if you're at all concerned before acting.

However, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) says it's illegal to break the copy protection employed by the vast majority of commercial DVD movies. What does that mean? Most fair-use advocates say that the policy directly contradicts U.S. copyright laws, but for now, it does seem to indicate that you cannot make a copy of a DVD, even for personal use, and you certainly cannot give a copied DVD to anyone or watch copied DVD files on your computer. We assume that fair use will eventually catch up and be established as a safety valve for consumers (which has been the pattern with previous technologies, such as VCR), but for now, the territory is undefined and a bit dangerous.

Nevertheless, commercial products aimed at DVD copying continue to appear. If you're willing to brave the DMCA, two of the most heavily promoted DVD-copying packages are 321 Studios' US$49.99 DVD Copy Plus, and Internet Enterprises' US$39.99 Replicant. Both work as advertised, but here's the catch: the DVD-copying portions of both packages consist solely of instructions and minor extra software slapped on top of free, public-domain software. Both apps use, primarily, a program called SmartRipper to rip movie files from DVD and DVDx for transcoding and squashing them for video CD. You can download both programs and use them to do exactly what DVD Copy Plus and Replicant do--for free.

Overall, we recommend a healthy dose of skepticism when dealing with any commercial DVD-to-CD backup package. In addition to DVD Copy Plus and Replicant, programs called DVD-Squeeze 3.0 and DVDCopyOne (the latter's Web site and offerings look suspiciously similar to Replicant's) reveal the same basic setup: public-domain software repackaged with some essentially useless instructions, selling for US$39 and US$49.99, respectively. Since these free programs all circumvent the copyright protection on DVDs, they arguably violate the DMCA.

We did, however, find one program, DVD X Copy, also from 321 Studios, that does not appear to rely on public-domain software. (And 321 Studios was the only company that responded to our e-mail requesting more information on its products.) Because DVD X Copy preserves the copyright protection on DVDs, it appears to comply at least with the letter of the DMCA. Read the full review to find out more about DVD X Copy.

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