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by symlinkk 1558 days ago
You’re confusing physical formats with the advantages of ownership.

You can own DRM free digital files and have all of the same advantages, plus also enjoy the ease of use of digital.

The only problem is there is no legal way of obtaining DRM free digital copies of movies or tv shows. For music you have Bandcamp and (I think) iTunes.
2 comments
Groxx 1558 days ago
I don't think they're confusing the two, it's more that sellers are forcibly combining the two. Nobody likes it, but they keep doing it, except in a couple sections where massively rampant piracy has essentially forced them to provide less user-hostile options.
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aparks517 1558 days ago
> The only problem is there is no legal way of obtaining DRM free digital copies of movies or tv shows.

I think that depends on where you are. Maybe someone will correct me, but I was under the impression that here in the US you can "format-shift" a DVD or BD you legally own by ripping it to an unencrypted format so you can watch it on your tablet or what-have-you. Isn't that the legal leg iTunes stood on (before ITMS) for ripping CDs to listen to on your computer or iPod?

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Groxx 1558 days ago
IANAL and have not followed this super closely so take this with a grain of salt, but from what I understand the answer is "no". In practice nobody pursues this kind of personal use, but that's very different from it being legal, and it has not truly been tested in courts either way.

You can make backups... with the encryption intact. But breaking DRM is essentially always illegal for any purpose, thanks to the wonderful DMCA. And that's before getting into EULAs that more and more frequently deny you ownership over what you bought, only a "temporary, revocable, non-transferable license to play this format on licensed devices in specific circumstances" or similar.

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symlinkk 1558 days ago
It is pretty hard to rip Blu Rays, from my surface level understanding only one piece of software supports it (MakeMKV), and only certain Blu Ray drives with specific versions of firmware support it.
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jerf 1558 days ago
mpv can be convinced to rip most blurays, but getting the requisite magic files can be a bit of a trip. You're looking for the latest "KEYDB.cfg".

There's also still a chunk of blurays that it just won't rip because they're too sophisticated, although shocking few releases seem to be releasing those. (Must be a lot more expensive to make them.) You also run the risk that if you're not careful about what you put in your drive, you can have the latest Bluray disk revoke your drive simply by it spinning up and doing the initial read before you even ask for anything, from what I gather. I'm not sure if this is a current risk, but it's always changing.

I've also found there's some confusion about what constitutes a 'track number'. DVD only has one, Bluray seems to have two. Most releases keep both in sync, but not all of them. The STTNG Blurays were a bit tricky to get the right shows off in the right order.

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