Getting Around Copy Controls

Big stores sell apps with tips for copying protected DVDs.

Bling Software's 123 Copy DVD gives tips for copying.

Despite laws making it illegal to circumvent antipiracy technology on DVD movies, programs with tools and instructions for doing just that remain widely available at major retailers such as Best Buy, CompUSA, and Target.

Out of the box, Bling Software's 123 Copy DVD and Me Too Software's ICopyDVDs2 Standard, each $30, don't allow you to duplicate copy-protected DVDs. But both products provide instructions on how to obtain free add-ons to bypass copy restrictions.

In 2004, a judge banned 321 Studios' DVD X Copy, which could create duplicates of commercial DVD movies, saying it violated the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ban on information or tools to bypass copy-control technology (including the Contents Scramble System that is used in DVD media).

Non-U.S. Only?

When you try to copy a protected DVD using ICopy-DVDs2 or 123 Copy DVD, you get a message warning that doing so is illegal in the United States. But ICopyDVDs2 then explains how non-U.S. users can find and download an add-on for copying CSS-protected DVDs. Similarly, 123 Copy DVD offers a link to booyakasha.biz, a site where you can download a similar add-on. When we began researching this story, Internet domain registration records showed that booyakasha.biz was registered to Bling Software at an address in Gibraltar. (The registration info has since been made private.)

The makers of 123 Copy DVD did not respond to our e-mail queries. Me Too Software's Ron Wojcik says the product merely provides tips to international users, who are not bound by U.S. laws. Best Buy and CompUSA declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association of America. For now, a loophole is open.