Idea to do away with the need to backup your DVDs ;)

[Cirrus]

OK, hows this...

People back up their DVDs because they don't want to damage the original and have to spend £££ replacing it.

It's often been said that the cost to physically produce a DVD is cheep (£1?) whilst the actual price we pay (£15+) is due to all the things that go to make the movie and DVD authoring. Fair enough.

Now, how if you had a dammaged DVD you could visit a shop (real or on-line) where you could exchange your damaged original disk for a new one (minus packaing). Maybe with proof of purchase or something. You would pay a nominal handling fee (£1/£2) to cover the cost of the DVD + a small mark up to keep the shop in business.

You have already paid full price for it once, so all you are paying for is the production costs for stamping a new DVD.


I know this will never actually happen, but if people are prevented (by law) from backing up their own copies, could this be an alternative?

[mats.hogberg]

If people are prevented by law to take backups, I can see no other workable way than a replace service. I don't think this should be thrown in the lap of retailers (on or off line) but taken care of by those most in favour of this law - the media industry companies. Proof of purchase seems superflous - that you have a damaged original must be enough to entitle you to a working disc. Their 'response' might be a very steep 'nominal fee' but that's just speculation (too).
On the other hand, we've lived thru the era of the compact audio cassette, which in combination with low end car cassette players turned out to be a short lived medium indeed, and nobody ever got a replacement for their tape sallad that I know of...
All in all, it doesn't worry me much as I'm going to keep on doing what I please with what I've bought, but what will happen to DVDRhelp, and 'specially the DVD9toDVD5 questions?

/Mats

[Cirrus]

and nobody ever got a replacement for their tape sallad that I know of...

No, but then nobody seemed bothered that you were copying your original record/tape to play in the car...

With the crackdown on backing up your purchased DVDs, is this a viable alternative?

[aceof1]

Who could be bothered taking them back and then having to wait forever to get the replacement providing they even send a replacement, i would rather keep the damaged dvd or just back it up to a dvd-r. Im sure i read somewhere that the game companies will send you a new copy of a damaged original, or atleast claim they will send a new copy.

[mats.hogberg]

or just back it up to a dvd-r.

The question was raised because doing that may be illegal (not just in the eyes of the media industry) in a not too distant future.

/Mats

[Cirrus]

i would rather keep the damaged dvd or just back it up to a dvd-r.

As I'm sure most people would. What I'm saying is that as they are trying to force people to stop backing up, could this be used as an incentive to stop people from doing that?

[mats.hogberg]

could this be used as an incentive to stop people from doing that?

No, but it can be used to take the only valid/legal argument for making backups of the DVDs I own away.

/Mats

[Gazorgan]

Won't work. The business model is clearly designed for the disks to wear out. Look at Disney, they open the archives every 5-9 years to get a new generation of kids, and for adults to replace the worn out copies.

Besides, you don't own the rights to the movie, you own a $12 piece of poly carbonate that your not allowed to backup(in the US anyway).