Digital Home Thoughts: Hell Hath Frozen Over: MPAA Open to Ripping DVDs for Personal Use!

"At a LexisNexis conference on DRM this week, MPAA boss Dan Glickman said the movie studios were now fully committed to interoperable DRM, and they recognize that consumers should be able to use legitimate video material on any item in the house, including home networks. In a major shift for the industry, Glickman also announced a plan to let consumers rip DVDs for use on home media servers and iPods... Despite the lack of specificity, Glickman's speech marks a step forward for the MPAA, which says it is now committed to allowing content to play on any device, from any manufacturer. As other presenters at the conference made clear, this is largely a result of self-interest: consumers are frustrated with current limitations, and movie studios aren't thrilled about having to sign off on Apple's terms in order to get content onto iPods. Still, hearing Glickman speak with conviction about consumer rights to use material in "fair ways" and to wax eloquent about interoperability was an encouraging sign—even if he views DRM as a necessary "enabling tool" that's not going away anytime soon."

Well, praise the Lords! We consumers have known all along that the MPAA's stance on DVD ripping was absurd and outdated, I just didn't think I would ever see them seeing it our way. Now, I'm not thrilled that Glickman implies DRM will be necessary for legal DVD ripping, but at this point if it works with my mobile player and every machine on my network, I couldn't care less about DRM. In other words, if the DRM were unobtrusive the way DRM was intended I wouldn't have a problem with it in the first place... Let's just hope that whatever DRM scheme they settle on will be 'universal' so we're not left high and dry if we want to switch PMPs.