DVD to iPod rips are illegal

The U.S. Library of Congress recently rejected a petition that would have allowed iPod users to copy movies over to the MP3 and movie player with no restrictions. As it stands now, many people carry around a handful of movies stored on their iPods. They got those movies from iTunes or another online content provider and then, in essence, made a copy, storing that copy on their iPod.

But the real rejection came in the form of non-electronic data flow. The Library of Congress emphatically ruled out any transfer other than one in which the user is saving a movie that he or she already paid for on that iPod. In other words, if you didn’t buy it on iTunes, you can’t save it to your video iPod.

DVD ripping is common these days, thanks in large part to the video iPod. The U.S. Government wants to make sure that all that ripping doesn’t involve in ripping off sometime soon.