I lent my DVD of King Kong (2005) to a brother-in-law. A nephew came looking for it a few days later and I directed him to the brother-in-law. A few days later, my son wanted to watch it and the DVD was lying on a table in his room without being in a sleeve or case or anything. He tried to watch it, but there were so many scratches on the DVD that the DVD player would freeze.

I don't have any kind of backup DVD for that movie, which I've only seen 20 minutes of. I will not buy the DVD again. If I want to watch it, I will have to break the law.

The Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) of 1992 allowed consumers to make copies of audio recordings for private noncommercial use. Although videos are not included in the act, the inclusion is assumed.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 states that "no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title".

So the reality is that, according to US copyright law, consumers do not have the right to circumvent copy protection in order to make a backup copy of anything video or audio. This probably includes anything else that's analog or digital, including software.

There's software available from many sources on the Internet that will allow you to decrypt and make a copy of any DVD that has already been made. Unfortunately for me, my DVD can no longer be copied with ANY software. The only option I have is to either buy it again or to download it from a torrent website. Downloading is not illegal, but uploading IS illegal. Just by using bittorrent software for that purpose, I would be breaking the law.

Will I break the law and download the movie? Nope. Not because I can't but because my dial-up speed is so slow that it would take weeks. I have better things to do with my time. All of my relatives now know that they can't borrow a DVD from me. They have to come over and watch it here.