Public Knowledge Asks Copyright Office To Allow DVD 'Space Shifting'

Public Knowledge recommended to the U.S. Copyright Office that consumers be given the ability to "space shift" DVDs among various devices they may own, by cracking the encryption on the DVDs.

PK made the recommendation as part of the Copyright Office's proceeding that takes place every three years to evaluate suggested exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Unlike music CDs, video DVDs are usually encrypted. It is currently a violation of the DMCA to break the encryption in order to copy the video onto another device. PK asked the Register of Copyright to approve an exemption for breaking the encryption so that a DVD could be copied, for noncommercial use, onto a consumer's device, such as a tablet computer or other item that doesn't have a DVD drive.