Ask HN: Can I download Torrent of a movie legally if I own the DVD/Blueray?

16 points · punnerud · 7 days ago

I more and more often find that I pay for movies I already own, because it’s easier with streaming services. Can I legally download it as long as I already own it?

That way I could make it more accessible within the house for my kids and myself.

And could I take it one step further and make a service where user have to insert their DVD into external drive, then only use a couple of seconds for verification and then activate Torrent download of the same, without lengthy copy process.

If that is legal take it one more step and let the user hand in their DVD for external storage, for a “physical” key (Bitcoin, Ethereum etc) as proof of ownership.

34 comments
pridkett · 7 days ago
In the United States, there’s a service called Vudu Disc to Digital. It’s had a couple of various iterations over the years - I think it first started with needing to insert the DVD or Blu Ray into your drive, and now uses UPC codes as people don’t have optical drives. There are various checks to try and make sure you’re not just scanning UPC codes at the store (location needed to be on).

After confirming that you own the disc it is (was?) $2 for SD quality or for $5 you could take a DVD and get an HD version. The catch is that the movies were then added to your Vudu account - not as unencrypted DRM. But, if they were Movies Anywhere eligible, they showed up in your Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft accounts. From there, getting an archival copy is an exercise for the reader.

It didn’t have all the movies. And not every movie was eligible for Movies Anywhere. But, it did work for about 60% of my hundreds DVDs when I went all digital. Plus, this method was clearly legal in the United States, so long as you used your own discs and didn’t make archival copies.

The rights management must’ve been a nightmare.

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dave4420 · 7 days ago
No. Someone tried that 20-25 years ago (with CDs / music streaming, but the principle’s the same) and got sued into oblivion.

The principle being, you don’t have the right to watch the movie as such: you have the right to watch _your copy_ of the movie.

If someone gives you an unauthorised copy of something you have a legit copy of… it’s still unauthorised.

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not_your_vase · 7 days ago
Depends on the jurisdiction where you live.

In many European countries it is legal what you describe. In other European countries you don't even have to own the DVD-Blu-ray, as long as you store the "backup" on a storage medium that you bought in that country (there are pirate-taxes added to storage medium prices that are distributed to copyright holders, kind of legalizing movie and music piracy). One thing though: uploading is considered criminal even in these countries (e.g. the downloading part of torrent is OK, seeding even a byte is a big no-no)

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solardev · 7 days ago
In the US, downloading a copyrighted work is infringement. It doesn't matter whether you own any additional copies of the work already. Fair use doesn't care about that.

Additionally, if you're torrenting, you're probably also uploading (helping to seed) the file, which is redistribution.

Nothing legal about it under current law. That said, just use an overseas seedbox instead of your home IP and you'll be fine. A lot faster too, since they have fat pipes.

fastily · 7 days ago
If I’ve already gone through the trouble to obtain a blu-ray drive and insert a disk into it, then I’m just going to use MakeMKV