I have just read an article which says, you are allowed to make a backup of a DVD which you Legaly own. BUT if the DVD is copy protected it is against the law to "circumvent" the protection.
So this "catch 22" law makes it ILLEGAL to back up DVD movies you own.

Here is the article taken from EURO-COPYRIGHTS.ORG

1) Can I lawfully make a copy for my personal use of a film on DVD or music on a CD, which I lawfully acquired?



Yes, you are allowed to do so unless the DVD or the CD is protected by a measure which makes it impossible to copy unless the measure is circumvented, which is the case as regards e.g. copy-protected CDs.



However, if you have borrowed or leased the DVD/CD from others, including from libraries or a video store, it is illegal to make a copy of it. Nor is it legal to copy a copy of a CD/DVD if you have got the copy from others.





2) Is it allowed to circumvent a copy-protection mechanism in order to make a copy for my personal use of a film on a DVD or of music on a CD?



No, it is illegal to circumvent the copy-protection mechanism, although it is legal to make a copy for your personal use. If a DVD or CD is copy-protected you are in other words excluded from legally making a copy for personal use.





3) May I make a back-up copy of a lawfully acquired computer game or program?



Yes, you are allowed to make a necessary use- and back-up copy of computer programmes. However, you are not allowed to make a copy for personal use on e.g. another computer in the household, as is the case as regards CDs and DVDs, cf. above under 1.





4) Is it allowed to circumvent a copy-protection mechanism in order to make a back-up copy of a computer programme?



Yes, it is allowed if you can do it yourself or know someone who can. The ban against breaking copy-protection mechanisms does namely not include computer programmes, but it is illegal to sell or for commercial purpose possess means, whose only purpose is to ease removal or circumvention of technical mechanisms which are used to protect a computer programme.





5) Can I lawfully make copy for private use of a CD or a DVD that I borrowed?



No, only if you copy to an analogue medium, e.g. a cassette tape, is it legal to copy a borrowed CD/DVD. This is also the case as regards a CD/DVD you have borrowed from the library or from a friend. It is also illegal to give a copied CD/DVD away.





6) What do I risk if I am in possession of illegally made copies?



The illegal copies can be confiscated.



Only if it can be proved that you have made the copies or contributed to it you risk to be imposed with a fine. Moreover, you risk a claim for compensation from the rights holders of the protected film or musical works etc.





7) Is it illegal to download protected film- or musical works etc. from peer-to-peer services on the internet?



Yes. This is also the case as regards works which you own in beforehand, e.g. on CD/DVD.



However, in the rare cases where the work is uploaded to the internet with the consent from the originator it is legal to make a copy of the work for your personal use.





8) Is it allowed to circumvent a regional code on a DVD, or to circumvent the CSS code on a DVD in order to be able to use Linux?



The legal status does not appear directly from the wording of the Copyright Act, but the memoranda with the bill implementing the Copyright Directive into the Copyright Act stipulate that it is not illegal to circumvent measures that hinder or complicate the personal acquisition of a work, as e.g. circumvention of regional encoding on DVDs. It is also allowed to circumvent a measure in order to perform a work on the machine or with the software one has available, e.g. the open source operative system Linux, to which the Content Scrambling System on DVDs have been circumvented. But it is illegal to circumvent a measure in order to make a copy of a work.





9) Is it allowed to convert a piece of music on a CD into a MP3 format in order to be able to play it on a MP3 player? May I circumvent a copy protection if this is the purpose?



Yes, you are allowed to circumvent a copy-protection in order to be able to convert the CD format into files that you can play on your MP3 player.

Basically the law is an ass but it is the law none the less...
It wont be long before you will not be allowed to backup anything (my opinion only not fact)

The web-page you refer to is for Danish users. You are located in the UK where there is no provision to make back-ups for personal use of copyright protected DVDs. There are exceptions but if you bought it for yourself and are not visually impaired then you won't qualify. The exception for visually impaired users is to allow transfer of content to a more accessible format. There are other exceptions but they don't fall under domestic use.

You can read the - unofficial - consolidated law to 31 December 2003 here.

Regards

TigerZai

I would not bother to much about this Euro crapy law...even with this new EU constitution which is just a joke...
here in EUrope it is always the same thing, we have many laws brohibiding things and we do not even understand what is the main reason and why these laws are for...

at the end, any citizen do what they want, like this french guy caught with 500 DVD downloaded "illegaly" from internet and who has been found not guilty ...,yes u read right, NOT GUILTY!!

No worries...The DMCA is just as much a joke here as well.