If you make even one copy of a DVD, you should go to jail. According to our friends at the MPAA, you are a movie-stealing-scumbag-pirate if you want to make a legitimate back-up of a DVD you just bought for $19.99. Heh!

"When a consumer can voluntarily expand the rights that come with one of those services — in essence open the door to multiple copies of a work not licensed for that — that eliminates any monetization models except one: selling full use rights to the work at one fixed price," says the Copyright Alliance on the MPAA's behalf. In other words, it only charges $9.99 per DVD, for example, because it assumes it lasts for a finite period of time, becoming inoperable due to wear and tear I suppose. If you want a DVD you can make copies of then the "price point" must be higher to reflect "expanded use rights." Insane I know.

Now after the MPAA made its closing arguments in the case to determine whether or not Real Networks can resume selling Real DVD, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel, raised some interesting questions. Her most poignant question for the MPAA attorneys was whether or not it believes it's legal for consumers to make backup copies of purchased DVDs for private use. "Not for the purposes under the DMCA," said Bart Williams, one of the MPAA's attorneys. "One copy is a violation of the DMCA. Copyright law makes it illegal for anyone to circumvent DVD encryption technology, which RealDVD seems to do.