For those saying "just pirate it" some people like the option of physical media and have moral qualms about piracy. This is actually a good thing WB is doing. Just let people have their DVDs
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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If you own the physical DVD, fair use allows you to own a backup copy, so torrenting it in that case would not be unethical nor illegal.
You’re allowed to make your own backup, but I’m pretty sure downloading somebody else’s backup is still illegal? First time I’ve seen someone suggest otherwise, would love more details about the actual laws.
I'm not a law talking guy, but from my understanding of it, downloading isn't illegal. But if you're torrenting it, you're uploading bits of it to others while you're downloading. That would be distributing it to others, so that's copyright infringement.
So if you could find a way to download something without uploading anything, you'd be fine. Kinda like if someone uploads copyright infringing material to youtube. You're not going to get into hot water for watching that video, but the person who uploaded is.
It is illegal to download. If you want back ups, then you need to back it up on your own - this includes physical games as well - like NES and such.
Apparently, Facebook managed to do it because they downloaded the whole pirated library without seeding it.
Downloading a copy would not be illegal in the US. Uploading a copy to someone would likely be illegal.
I mean maybe technically (I'm sure it varies depending on country). But I'm not aware of any cases where they've ever pursued anyone for that.
It's definitely a grey area in the US, I believe (again, no precedent set), and someone with a good lawyer could actually get a good ruling here, which would set the precedent. Which is probably why they never pursue it. I think that happened with VHS when people were taping shows in the 80s/90s (could be misremembering that).
The concept of "fair use" in general (not referring to specific interpretations of the term) definitely allows you to do this. At least how I interpret it. I am not a lawyer.
So if it were me, I'd only be concerned with the ethics, and I see nothing ethically wrong with it whatsoever. But that's just me.
I don't know about the US specifically, but oftentimes, and definitely where I'm from, laws can have a small amount of "common sense" leeway and judges can find justifications for rulings if they want to rule a particular way. e.g. I have pirated games that I legally bought because there's literally no functioning "official" download link anymore, if anyone were to ever prosecute me for that, even if it were illegal technically a judge could find a way to rule it lawful out of sympathy or whatever other reason, if they wanted to. A lot of the time it's "the government can't have possibly intended this law to be enforced this way, therefore I rule XYZ".
In any case, as you said, I've never heard of anyone being pursued for that. And if it's not enforced, it's not a law.
I have bought then pirated media like this in many instances, usually because piracy is a better user experience, once because outdated DRM completely broke
I totally understand the desire to own physical media and agree that WB is doing the right thing here, but optical media is terrible means of preserving media. If your discs are suffering from disc rot, you really shouldn't lose sleep over making or "sourcing" your own local digital copies.
Fuck off, these people already own it at this point, so there is no such moral qualms. They paid for it. As for physical media, do you think only these companies can burn ISOs to DVD????
Yes they already own them and WB is replacing them, they're not buying them again. Man, so hostile. And for some there are those moral qualms. I know some of them. I'm not one of them. Calm down
Yeah, that is a very valid option! I don't like it when people not into collecting do it, though. Because it makes zero logical sense for a digital copy to be tied to a physical thing, unless you like the sentimental value of said physical thing as well.
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Thanks for the reminder that I own DVDs
I forgot all about them in storage
I just checked one of my dvd shelf and two WB movies that should be in excellent condition were little bit sticky from both sides. This feels like a flashback to when Arturia’s hardware keys and knobs started to ”melt” after few years. Companies use cheapest plastics possible.
I knew WB's HD-DVDs (remember those?) were a timebomb. I didn't realize regular DVDs were, too.
All optical media is.
It doesn’t matter. If the CD/DVD works, copy it immediately. If not, so sorry.
or just pirate it whenever.
Yeah seriously; never understood why a certain sector of people obsess over backing up their personal media, when you can literally download a perfect copy straight from the internet with no effort on your part. Especially when it comes to widely-available media like popular Hollywood films or video games that sold well. Just grab a torrent and toss the disc.
Pirated copies rarely contain any of the extras. Some people actually do watch those.
Extras are something I miss from modern movie distribution.
After finishing a movie you could watch the deleted scenes and behind the scenes and such. I rarely did the commentary watch of the movie but it was cool that it was there.
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If you only need popular shows in english sure.
Plenty of older things which where made for localized television cannot be found online but can be found in public libraries.
Well, those online copy's either originate from someone sharing their backed up collection or a camera pointed at the TV.
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And some hard to find movies can be lost forever because nobody have them anymore
Because these people often don't want to pirate. In Germany the government now fines you for piracy, using a common VPN isn't enough anymore. Then there are other factors such as remasters and changes.
Fight Club, The Matrix, The Terminator and Star Wars are all popular films but there are several versions out there with different color grades and special effects. So I completely understand why this subset of people would want to keep their version of the movie.
You also have to deal with whatever settings the uploader decided to use when they transcoded the original rip. Which can mess with the color grade and contrast ratio, the hdr grading, introduce noise, and otherwise fuck with the video quality and audio quality.
Most people won't care, but to some it matters.
remuxes are not hard to find.
In Germany the government now fines you for piracy, using a common VPN isn't enough anymore.
Why isn't a common zero-logs VPN enough? How would the government know? Encrypted VPN traffic can't be decrypted, at least until we have quantum computers, right?
or even a seedbox in another country.
Are they cracking down on I2P?
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I’m digitizing my SO’s cd collection now. Half are normal cds. 1/4 are promo or weird stuff from bands that barely existed. The rest are mix tapes or unreleased things from when they worked as a music journalist in college.
Sounds like a pretty interesting collection to me!
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Buying music CD and either ripping to flac or pirating flac after it (physically) arrived to keep it sealed.
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Shockingly good news from a media corp. Paramount would just steal your discs and tell you to pound sand
As would Sony and Disney. It is surprising that WB is doing this.
I think this is because WB used cheaper manufacturing and now they're failing way before they should.
Over the Top (dvd in photo) is an excellent movie.
Welp, guess I'm digging out my complete SG1 collection tonight.
I have to watch them all, you say? No, honey, this is important work I'm doing here. 😎
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I didn't know DVDs are supposed to last 100 years. That's definitely not the case with newer storage media, be it BluRay, hard disks or even worse SSDs.
Modern Blurays should actually last longer than DVDs. Bluray M-Discs supposedly even last 1000 years. 100 years for DVDs is pretty optimistic. 20-50 years is more realistic.
Apparently there's some huge drama in data hoarding communities about manufacturers switching between different recording technologies, and how everybody is worried that they aren't going to last for 5-10-100-1000 years.
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many of the discs produced by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) between 2006 and 2008 are failing prematurely
he (Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader) says the most reliable way to look for playback problems — DVDs that won’t load at all, freeze while you’re watching the film, or have unplayable special features.
Crusader’s video description links to some Google Docs, one of which is a list he compiled showing what he believes are “known rotted DVD titles” he found reported online
I skimmed over the article to see if whether or not if they're just gonna send you another DVD or if they're gonna do it through other means. I couldn't find anything.
I skimmed over the article to see if whether or not if they’re just gonna send you another DVD or if they’re gonna do it through other means. I couldn’t find anything.
???
It's right in the quote in the article:
Where possible, the defective discs have been replaced with the same title. However, as some of the affected titles are no longer in print or the rights have expired, consumers have been offered an exchange for a title of like-value.
Consumers with affected product can contact the customer support team at whv@wbd.com.
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