Specifications

Blame the Apple iPhone for my new love
affair with mobile video. I’ve always taken
a skeptical view of video on tiny screens—
until recently. A few weeks ago I took
the iPhone on a business trip. I watched
the Scott Baio Is 45 . . . And Single reality-
show premiere, along with other brainless
video treats. Most screens on devices of
this genre are too small for my enjoyment.
Thanks to the iPhone, I’ve turned a corner
and started thinking about all the other
video I might consume on this pocket-size
device.
I set my sights on the massive DVD col-
lection in my den, almost a decade’s worth
of my favorite movies. I also know that my
future is fi lled with business trips. So, nat-
urally, I now want to get that DVD content
onto the iPhone. But that would be break-
ing the law. Some people, however, would
consider my plans fair use.
The term “fair use” was a widely rec-
ognized, albeit not specifically codified
agreement between content creators and
consumers for decades. It became an offi -
cial part of copyright law in 1976, right
around the time VCRs arrived. Prior to
that, fair use dealt largely with copying
portions of books for research papers and
classrooms, and the less-common practice
of backing up audio LPs to tape.
The VCR changed things. Suddenly,
consumers could copy entire television
shows and even movies from broadcast
TV. The movie studios and television
networks grew concerned, and it became
obvious that more onerous copyright con-
trols would essentially kill the nascent
VCR industry.
Fast-forward to the digital age, with its
content-copying free-for-all. We encoun-
ter content piracy at every turn: Street
corners are littered with a wide selection
of pirated DVDs, thousands of unsanc-
tioned studio and network clips are all
over YouTube, and recently the world was
stunned to find complete PDF pages of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on
the Internet long before it arrived on store
shelves.
Fair use made sense only as long as it
was virtually impossible for individuals
to replicate mass-market distribution of
major content. The digital nature of all
content, and easy access to the Internet
and a broadband pipe, have fundamentally
changed the equation.
So where does that leave me and other
law-abiding citizens who simply want to
watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on our
iPhones? Content providers counsel buy-
ing a version from iTunes. Nuts to them—
I’m not paying twice. As an experiment, I
started looking for easy ways to transfer a
purchased DVD movie onto an iPod. Doz-
ens of programs are out there, but many
are too hard to use. Open-source Hand-
Brake is a favorite choice of Mac users.
And AoAMedia.com’s spectacularly easy
DVD Ripper includes output options for
the AppleTV and the iPod.
For my tests, I used DVD Ripper on
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Since the
trialware version rips only 10 minutes of
video, I ripped and converted one of the
extra features. Next, I grabbed the com-
pleted file and dropped it into iTunes.
Then I synced the iPod and was soon
watching the clip. The whole process took
only about 5 minutes. DVD encryption
was nothing to this app, and though many
similar apps discourage DVD ripping and
others won’t do it at all, it’s likely that apps
such as DVD Ripper are not going away
anytime soon.
The advent of Blu-ray, HD DVD, and
new encryption schemes has slowed the
DVD-ripping engine down, but it hasn’t
stopped it. Soon someone will hack HD
encryption, and new ripper apps will
arrive.
Most people who do what I did are
acting in the spirit of fair use and have no
intention of distributing the content. Real-
isticall
y, though, once it’s in a digital form,
redistribution is a possibility.
Fair use just doesn’t work in the digi-
tal age, and it’s time for content providers
to recognize that if they don’t give people
viewing options, people will generate them
on their own. I suggest that movie studios
create a slightly more deluxe version of
their DVD offerings: For another 99 cents,
say, you would also be able to download the
fi lm. That may not be fair use, but it is fair.
In This Issue
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TALK TO THE CHIEF You can contact
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For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag
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Fair Use Is a Failure
Where does that leave law-abiding citizens who want
to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on their iPhones?
Content providers counsel buying a version from
iTunes. Nuts to them—I’m not paying twice.
FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF
NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 9