Hacker News Reader

Comment by MrGilbert | Hacker News Reader

It's a valid point. I think it all boils down to:

a) Grab a copy of your favorite show or movie as a blu-ray and rip that (which is illegal in most jurisdictions, as you have to break the copy protection).

b) Watch it on Netflix and grab it from somewhere else (which is also illegal, because you don't own it if you have Netflix)

c) Don't care at all and just download the stuff "from sources".

d) Just watch open or initially free stuff. That's even harder.

It's pretty hard to stay on the safe side for this kind of thing.

Maybe we will see the same we had with the music industry some time ago: It's possible for me to get a FLAC album without DRM nowadays from perfectly legal sources. Not every album and every niche, but I can buy it and own it. Maybe the movie industry will have the same moment in the next decade.

View on HN

OK so in practice, most people utilisting this type of software are either bending or breaking the law to organise their movie collection the way they want to. I would really like to be able to manage my media on a NAS with a great piece of OS software that organises them with no ML smarts (when did people forget about alphabetical order and a few tags/categories) but what you gain in privacy and other benefits there you loose in fighting the uphill battle in acquiring the files, time, management etc. It has to be a hobby.

This issue is exactly why (imo) Plex has shifted to focus on features it’s core base actually doesn’t care about.

They’ve been trying (desperately) to present Plex as a business supporting only legitimate and legal usage.

First it was “curated” podcasts and “web shows”, then News(??), TIDAL integration, ad-supported media, and so on.

Originally it was very clear that they wanted to help you organize and play all your content without judgement and with the most beautiful experience possible.

Clearly Not Any More.

> Grab a copy of your favorite show or movie as a blu-ray and rip that (which is illegal in most jurisdictions, as you have to break the copy protection).

I was fairly certain this was allowed in Europe as long as you own the discs (or otherwise has a permanent right to watch the content?)

Anyone knows the details?

It's technically illegal in most jurisdictions, but ignored if you're doing it for personal use - i.e. you're not burning 1000 copies, selling to your friends, or re-sharing on the network. The UK passed a law in 2018 that sort of decriminalised copying DVDs, but bypassing any DRM or TPM (technical protection measures) is still technically illegal. As far as I can tell.

In Germany, a copy for private purpose is allowed. However, breaking the copy protection isn't allowed. There is a lot of uncertainty though: The wording of the law could allow "breaking" the copy protection if it is not secure (where you technically wouldn't break it any more). For instance, the DeCSS case would have been such an exception. Perhaps.

I’m not 100% on the details (everytime there’s a legal win, there’s a dozen lobby groups fighting against it), BUT in Canada it’s likely legal to “format shift” discs that you own by using the internet to download unencrypted copies of them.

You’re not breaking encryption thus are safe from that can of worms, and assuming you’re not uploading (distributing is definitely a crime, even a single chunk of a torrent) and it’s for personal use I believe that the law is on your side.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com