Your View on Digital copies through torrents

This is not about pirating in anyway, or at least I don't think so.

I was just wondering how others felt about torrents. I use them for many things, mostly Linux. But I do use them for getting digital copies of DVDs I own. I do not use them to make bootlegs to sell on the streets, I have better things to do with my time. I never download a movie I do not own as I own a ton " and I do mean a ton" of DVDs. But with Blue Ray, which seems to be the next media storage of choice, becoming increasingly more popular, I have begone copying my DVDs to a external hard dive. That puts a lot of work on my optical drive, so I started using torrents. Blue Ray disc for the most part offer, a digital copy as far as I know.

Most of the DVDs I own are not the newest releases so I have to rip them from my optical drive, but for the few in between that I can find, is it wrong to choose this option?

I personally feel that I paid for these disc, whatever I choose to do with them as long as it it not with the intention of selling them, is my own business. I am slowly but surely working on a home media PC, as the funds are available, and would like too load all of these onto it. I am almost done just shy of a few little things, the main one being the Blue Ray burner/player.

So, what are other views of downloading if you own the product?

I used torrents several times to download Linux distros and most recently, a legal Windows 7 Emergency Repair Disc (165MB). The link to that is on this forum. Torrents are said to prevent file corruption during download, so that's why I used it. And there is a speed increase as well. If you own the product and aren't doing anything illegal, do what you want with it.

Speaking from my personal opinion, I don't see anything wrong with torrenting something you already own. Whether it is because I forget a disc when I was traveling, or some disc eventually just got in to rough a shape to play cleanly after over five years.

That said, the content industry has set legal precedent with a recent court case that making a copy of a DVD you own is actually illegal. Should they prosecute a user over the matter, they would win. The content industry (Movie & music) expect that when media wears out, the user should simply buy a new copy.

I should probably stop using torrents then for the movies part. I guess I can understand their view. I don't like it, but I can see why they wouldn't want you too. If there was a way to replicate a car at almost zero cost, Ford would be screwed.

I was however, unaware that it was illegal to do, so thanks for that information. I suppose at the same time, I wasn't thinking about the seeding part while downloading. I guess even though I rightfully own the media, others who are using the network and gaining from me downloading, is just as bad as being the get away driver.

It's a shame, torrents are such a wonderful way to obtain large data files.

I use Torrents (not illegal torrents) and as i have uTorrent download manager port-forwarded in my router it makes for the fastest download. As for the fact if you own something its yours and i see no problem.

If I felt the need or urge to rip all my DVD's to my Computer either for making one physical copy for myself (i.e reburning the DVD) or to make a Media Center, I'd go out and purchase a second DVD burner and split the work between them.

I'd not want to trust Torrent for movies as it may come back to bite you. Either though some legal nastyness or just in the fact that the DVD on the Torrent may not be a very good copy and I'd want the best copy available.

I've noticed that some new BluRays are starting to offer a digital copy included in the price. For example, I have just bought the new Star Trek XI BluRay as a Christmas present and there is a little sticker saying "includes digital copy - works with itunes". This could be an interesting development if it takes off.

In the US, we have the Federal Copyright Act of 1976 which gives users the right to make one personal backup copy of any software we own, in case the disc does get damaged. The DMCA didn't override that one as far as I am aware.

Yeah, They have been doing it for a little while now, thats why at first I didn't see what would be wrong with just downloading the movies I own.

@ draceena

I had thought about the external disc drive, this will most likely be what I do.

The reason I want to move them all to a HD is, I own a ton. They take up two rather large book shelves in my living room I use for various media. Not to mention it would be nice to have them on a hard drive and be able to play them with just a few clicks. As for quality, most of the ones I downloaded had "samples" included of the video. That allowed me to select that to download first to see if it was worth even downloading. But like you said, I don't think I want the hassle of the possible legal side of it.

@ danperteet

That is interesting to know, I will have to look more into that.

danperteet, I'll have to look into that one myself. But wouldn't getting past the copy protection be a problem? I've tried copying software to have a backup, an OS, and upon trying to use it to install, it would not boot, there was a message about corrupt files. And it was and still is my original software. I wasn't making copies to sell, I just wanted something to fall back on.