Thread: Copy Protecting Recordable DVDs so they can't be ripped off?

For any one who is interested, Macrovision RipGuard Anti-Ripping copy protection is now available for Recordable DVDRs.


For the first time in industry history, every video producer and videographer—no matter how big or small—has access to the same cutting-edge, anti-rip DVDR copy protection used by the most powerful movie distributors and studios.

“We’ve made it very simple for producers,” says Tim Montague, President of Great Lakes Digital Media. “You simply provide us with a playable master disc on Recordable DVDR, and we process and protect it. There are no special production requirements. Generally within 24 hours, we’re ready to start manufacturing. We are also capable of protecting Dual-Layer DVD recordables as well.”

The cost for RipGuard-MOD ranges from less than a dollar per disc to a few dollars per disc, depending on quantity. The cost structure includes a one-time reasonable set up fee for applying the copy protection to the master, and a per-disc license fee to Macrovision—a small price to pay for protecting your proprietary content.
For more information about RipGuard-MOD, visit http://www.chicagodigitalpost.com or http://www.RipGuardMOD.com, or call 1-877-4MyVideo (U.S. only)

sad to say but eventually it will be hacked and as useless as CSS and the others.

You seem to have a much different view of what this is intended to provide. It is not "Copy Prevention" it is Copy Protection.

Is there anything that is uncircumventable in this world, given enough effort put towards it? I think not. No Bank, No Goverment, No Home, No Business, No Computer is beyond being breached.

The point to Macrovision RipGuard is mainly two-fold:

- Primarily it is intended to help keep honest people honest.
- Secondly it is intended to delay and/or deter the illegal reproduction.

In the case of a Hollywood Movie, every Week that its introduction into the peer-ro-peer world is delayed results in Millions of dollars of additional sales worldwide for the Studio.

In the case of the Cheerleading Competition DVD that a fellow Event Videographer has shot, preventing parents from making copies for other parents also results in increased sales.

The ultimate question is... Is what you are producing worth all the time and effort spent trying to make a copy? For a Hollywood Movie that will be sold or distributed on the black market? Yes, probably... For your Cheerleading DVD, or Indie Film about the Australian Outback? Probably not.

Was CSS long ago cracked? Absolutely. Have they made any attempt to improve their product to combat this? Appearently not. With Macrovision RipGuard, in the last 2 years they have had 4 version upgrades to combat newly discovered methods of circumvention, shutdown and put out of business DVD Decrypter, and continue the good fight on a daily basis to continually improve the product. Who else is doing that?

One last thought to ponder... will you ever be able to prevent viruses or spam? Hardly... so should you just not try? After all it is obviously a losing battle if you can't prevent it completely....

What I'm getting at is the fact that it is so easy to get around copy protection for the "small" business it may not be worth it. I have found it works out better charging for your time and selling the copies at a reasonable price. As far as the remark about viruses lets compare apples to apples, viruses are a totaly diffrent subject, CSS gets updated almost weekly and it only slows the pirates down for a few days, and keeping honest people honest? Then.....there not really honest........If there honest they wouldn't even try, right?

Whats your involment in this "ripguard" company? You seem to be pushing it pretty hard. Do a search, this subject has been beaten to death.

Hello there,

I understand your point that for some videographers it works for them to charge more for their time and charge less for the results, but that is not a universal business model that works for all due to market forces such as competition and competitive rates in their area of operation.

Re: viruses vs. apples, the context of that statement was intended to demonstrate the point that even though we cannot stop something, it does not preclude the desire or benefit of trying to.

Re: CSS... I won't say EVERY rip program out there is a DeCSS Ripper, because you can never say never, but basically just about every ripper out there is a DeCSS ripper, and my experience has been that CSS is only one step above having no protection, even though they may be tweaking it regularly. It is old technology, and hasn't gone any kind of 'major' revamp to thwart new methods of circumvention in who only knows how long.

LOL... I do have to agree with you about the honesty part though, can't really straighten a crooked arrow, but for some it is easier for them to flex than others.

The main issue surrounding this issue of honesty is two-fold, the first is a sense of entitlement that has been fostered in the mind of the consumer (understandably) that if they buy something they should be able to make a backup of it in case something happens to the original. Perfectly understandable and I agree with that. The problem is that that justification for duplicating a disk has been exploited by those who have no regard for the intellectual copyright and investment of the producer and either seek to profit from the illeal duplication of copyrighted material, or simply think they are taking a stab at the establishment. The few make it bad for the many.

The second issue is that the consumer has been so desensitized to the subsequent ill-effects on the industry and producer of this kind of activity that it has become second nature to them to easily justify this in their mind.

Case in Point, April Issue of EventDV Magazine, Article on Producing Cheerleading Competition Videos profiling 3 Videographers (http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/Read...rticleID=12661)... and I quote "Anderson (one of the three videographers profiled) reported that he has heard parents, right at his table, say they will buy one DVD and make copies for other parents. " They simply no longer seem to appreciate that just because you CAN copy a DVD, doesn't automatically give you the right to.

Therefore producers like yourself are FORCED to compensate in other ways, such as selling your finished product at a price you may feel is below its reasonable value for the time and energy put into creating it, all in attempt to counteract this activity on the part of the consumer.

Therefore my belief in providing copy protection stems from the fact that the harder you make it to circumvent applied copy protection, the less bend you allow in the arrow. The arrow can still be bent or broken, and always will be, but it more readily becomes a deterrent, which is always preferrable to the alternative in my mind, simply giving up and saying 'Oh well, they win."

As for my involvement, my company has been a Disc Manufacturer and Macrovision Facility for years. But prior to that, I spent many years in educational multimedia producing intructional video content and applications for K-12, and for the time, money and energy put into creating that content, still feel that my original works have every right to be protected, just as books, patents and trademarks are.

I have to disagree. As a videographer I would always price my product on the basis of producing a video, not running a DVD re-production company. Generally we are paid for the work we do rather than on a per DVD basis, and indeed the over-inflated prices charged for duplication by videographers is a function of poor cost analysis. Simply put, if videographers are worried about 'piracy', then they need to take a long hard work at their pricing structure.

That's not to say that work isn't protected by law. Implementing copy protection on this low level scale is not economically viable; a more sensible approach is to base costs and therefore prices on the service you provide. To assume that a large proportion of income is derived from DVD sales is not an assumption I would be happy with , and is counter-intuative to creating a pricing model.

Hi Marc,

I agree with you in the respect that I wouldn't expect a disproportionate amount of income from videographers to be generated through DVD sales alone, but nonetheless it is still a viable revenue stream.

To spend $50 to protect that revenue stream, which in turn could generate an additional $200 in sales just makes sense. Where else can you get that kind of ROI?

Again, just so my comments are not taken out of context here, every situation is different, every videographer is different and how each runs their business and values both their services and products (DVDs) is different. This, like anything else, is not for everyone. There will always be those who do not see value in it, and of course there will be those that do (and already have).