1. In my point of view you could go to a pirate and buy a ready made "backup" to lend out to your friends. You could even not have to open your original/licensed DVD at all and keep it sealed making it "mint" and watch the pirated DVD. How much is the difference between a blank DVD, DVD case, piece of paper & some ink from a felt pen, electricity vs a drive to Virramall for a "backup" + the backup?
2. As you said it is fair use so it isn't illegal. What is bad is what pirates are doing is selling pirated DVDs to those without original copies of the DVD.
3. It is how you present it which makes buying a DVD to "backup" your original DVD that makes it technically... legal... I think.
Is it worth the hassle to deal with CD-R King's very competent salesgirls rather than go to a more accommodating pirate?
BTW what does Philippine law have to say about fair use? It cant be identical to that of the US. I just follow what is printed on the DVD or shown before the video is presented just to be safe. ^_^
I've done it before and told them point-blank that it's illegal to deny a customer replacements regardless of any sign or in-store policy they might have written down. It's a pain to do but you'll get your replacements.
Not to mention a waste of your time and not worth the aggravation.
Also, make it a point to demand official receipts. They owe you that. They owe the government that. If they say no, tell them (again) that it's illegal and that they could all get into trouble.
You can nail them on that account. Have the BIR knock em off. Death and taxes...
It's just me, but I'd rather have control over my backup, i.e., I can choose to shrink a DVD into DVD5 for some movies and spread over 2 DVD5s the other movies I don't want watch with compressed/compromised quality.
The above and the statement below contradict. It takes less time to make manipulate a DVD to what you want than go to Quiapo? Do you by chance live in Baguio?
I also save time from not having to go back to Q or wherever for 1 disk that's unwatchable on my player--also since I don't see the need to come up with colored labels and dvd jackets. As for coasters, I think, once you know the idiosyncrasies of your burner, you'd know what dvd blanks work well and what to avoid completely for relatively coaster-free burning. And if there still is a coaster, popping another disk still beats having to go all the way to Q or your suking pirate for a replacement.
Again you spend on learning from one's mistake. You also spend electricity and internet time to learn how to defeat DRM/Macromedia and learn how to make backups. Once you have that knowledge you spend more time and money buying spindles worth of blanks and spend computer time and electricity to make DVDs.
In the end it doesn't matter what I or others think but makes you happy. All I wanted to do was share what insights i've learned from having the same hobby. Time was I used to backup thousands of movies to Super VCD (was before DVDRs are cheap) but when I saw how much time and money I've spent doing this I stopped cold turkey. I have 1 whole wall covered with CDs that cant be reused unlike say a HDD. I also dont want to sell it cause I'm not a pirate.
Funny thing is the DVDs we try to save from damage will soon be made obsolete with the introduction of BD & HD-DVD. I have yet to hear of a DVD that appreciates in value.
If I recall correctly pirates now offer DVD9 copies of movies these days... so no more DVD5s.
