My Mac won’t let me import and edit video from a DVD I made from my own footage! At least it won’t without additional software. It doesn’t seem likely that Apple lacks the savvy to tackle this - it seems more likely that providing software to allow grabbing and editing video off a DVD player would open Apple up to the accusation that it was facilitating piracy. Seems like I am not the only person facing this issue either.

So as Prof. Lessig suggests, the technologies of copyright protection (or limitations designed to prevent ‘misuse’) can end up preventing not just criminal but legitimate use of technologies. I have written a bunch more stuff about copyright on my own blog. If you are interested to know how I am struggling to solve my Mac problem (by jumping through a remarkable number of hoops!), click on the link following:
First I downloaded ffmpegx which enabled me to convert the .VOB files on my DVD into Quicktime files (once I had downloaded and installed three separate further utilities it required to work - they were not bundled with it for legal reasons). Then I discovered that iMovie couldn’t handle files longer than 9.5 minutes. So I have to go upgrade to Quicktime Pro ($30) so I can split the file.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Copyright. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.