Is Backing up DVD's illegal?

[majagua]

If you offer the service of backing up a movie DVD original for a person, are you comitting a crime?

[Fantasma]

Yes, and you could be busted.

This is the warning that one of my DVDs have in the back of its box:

Warning : Federal Law provides several severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of copywrighted motion pictures video tapes, laser discs and DVDs. Criminal copywright infringement is investigated by the FBI and may constitute a felony with a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and or a $250,000.00 fine. Licensed for private home exhibition only. Any public performance , copying or other use is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Of course, I never pay attention to the important warnings :)

[mb1]

No matter what is written on dvd covers this doesn´t have to be law.

In Germany (at the moment) it is still allowed to copy a self-owned dvd and give the copy to a good friend but not for money (right to copy for private use).
But for that purpose it is not allowed to decrypt the css key using corporate secrets (f.e. Xing´s stolen css key or DeCSS). You need to use a cryptographic attack like vobdec and smartripper do.

The European Community is developing a new law which doesn´t allow that any longer. But the law is not passed until now.