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91% of Americans Want the Ability to Copy DVDs Onto Their PCs, Study Finds

by Lee Bains on April 6, 2009 at 11:18 AM


This morning, the National Consumers League released a statement claiming that 90-percent of PC-owning, U.S. consumers want the ability to save DVDs, as they would CDs, on their computers. The study was conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, and drawn from a survey of 1,000 consumers of varying ages.

This should come as no surprise to those who have witnessed the gradual digitalization (moving away from physical products and towards computer files) of music, songs and albums. Just as many music fans now use their computers as their primary sound systems, 69-percent of those surveyed attested to watching DVDs on their computers. Is it any surprise, then, that they'd want the ability to save the disc on their video player of choice? It shouldn't be, particularly when you consider that nearly 40-percent of the respondents claimed to have, at some point, repurchased a DVD due to loss or damage.

For the most part, folks in the "biz" aren't too fond of this trend, since importing media onto a computer renders computer files that are more easily pirated than are physical discs. That being said, with the economy in such dire straits, and folks' once disposable income becoming increasingly indispensable, DVD sales have suffered (55-percent are purchasing fewer DVDs than they were last year). That being said, 40-percent of the respondents said that the ability to import DVDs onto their computers would stimulate their purchasing of the discs.


Much like everyone else, the movie folks have found themselves in a pickle, it seems to us. With sales suffering, this simple decision to remove or change the encryption from DVDs could really boost business at a time when it's sorely needed. It could also, months down the road, lead to movie piracy on a large scale, ultimately nullifying any short-term benefit the policy might have had. And then, there's not to mention the fact that this rock of a situation has a hard place, too. [From: National Consumers League]

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Tags: digital media, DigitalMedia, drm, dvd, dvd recorder, DvdRecorder, DVDs, studies, surveys, top

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