After eight months of deliberation, a San Francisco federal judge ruled that popular DVD-copying software from 321 Studios has to be yanked off the market within seven days. Here’s an article with more details and a bit of the technical background. The ruling encompasses any product that breaks the copy protection on commercial DVDs. The software from 321 Studios has been popular and readily available – sold at CompUSA and similar stores – but copying a movie is not a straightforward process even with the use of that software. When you consider the cost of the software, the difficulty of using it, the cost of blank DVDs, and the time it takes to make a copy of a movie, you reach a conclusion that’s been true for some time – the best way to make a copy of a movie is to buy a second copy.
