DVD Protection on Mac

[supanatral]

I was trying to make a backup of one of my DVDs and it gave me such a hard time! I tried Mactheripper and then after some googling, I found some windows programs that do the same thing but they get rid of a lot of encryption, so I booted up windows in VMWare and installed them. No matter which program I used though, it gave me a hard time with it at the same place in the DVD.

I only had one more idea left and that was to (god forbid) walk over to a PC and install the program and try it there. to my amazement, it worked! Does Apple block us from doing that to or is it just my DVD rom?

P.S. This is on my MPB

[ora]

We can't discuss dvd ripping here, board rules, legit stuff only, sorry!

[supanatral]

Even if it is backing up my own DVD's?

Thats fair if you can't. Thanks anyways

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Some DVDs cannot be backed up. DVD copy protection is ever-changing, and while the hackers out there find ways around the copy protection schemes, the MPAA and its affiliates find more clever ways to protect their DVD disks.

Backing up a DVD isn't a "given" -- there's no sure-fire way to do it. Some programs can work around some forms of copy protection, and other forms, they cannot. Some programs can back up a certain DVD, while other programs cannot. It's hit-and-miss, and it sounds like you've encountered one of the "miss" disks, at least under Mac OS X.

Backing up your own DVDs is not a right that you have (it is still very much a gray area under the law) -- sure, under the DMCA, you're allowed to make a backup copy, but that doesn't stop the movie companies from trying to stop you from making backup copies, nor is it in violation of your rights for them to try and stop you from doing so.

[supanatral]

Thats fair. But I was actually running windows under VMWare and wasn't able to do it-meanwhile, on a PC with the same version of the program and everything, it worked. Why would that be?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Well, success/failure is also dependent, to a degree, on the actual hardware -- the DVD drive itself. One DVD program, using a certain DVD drive, with a certain movie may succeed, while the same DVD program, using the same movie, on a different DVD drive may fail.