Re: Copying DVD to VHS: may be impossible

[Walt_Crawford@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Virgil,

There's another issue that has very little to do with copyright law--except
that DMCA could creep in.

To wit, unless PBS behaves quite differently from other DVD producers, you
won't be *able* to make a VHS copy of your DVD.

Almost all published DVDs include Macromedia encoding. All commercially
available VCRs include Macromedia circuitry.

These VCRs will not make usable recordings of DVDs with Macromedia
encoding. That's quite deliberate.

(It's also the reason that you can't loop DVD output through a VCR to get
to a single video input: The output is, at best, heavily distorted--again,
thanks to Macromedia.)

DMCA comes in because bypassing Macromedia protection could involve
violation of the overreaching statute.

Not a legal opinion, but technologically, it's a lot easier to buy a
$60-$70 DVD player...

-walt crawford-

--responding to:--

[query from Virgil Varvel re copying a PBS DVD to VHS for circulation]