why can't I make a digital recording of a DVD?

I would not regard this as illegal provided you purchased and still own the the original DVD and you are copying it for your own home use and not for re-sale or to give to someone else.
Shadorne (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers)

A little sidebar perhaps, but why would anyone make a copy of a DVD if it was intended for their own home use, and not intended to be given to someone else or sold? This strikes me as a legal loophole to protect those who duplicate copyrighted material. Of what purpose are two identical versions of the same DVD in the same household?

If I'm not mistaken, the original intent of this loophole was to allow archiving of recordings that were in danger of being damaged if they were handled or played.

With the advent of CDs and DVDs, this potential for damage has largely disappeared.

Sure, there will be some examples offered: protect the original from damage, provide a second copy for the rumpus room. I'll bet all the explanations stretch credulity.

Tvad, I have taken the music from a concert DVD and put it on CD so I could play it elsewhere like in my car.

I am positive Rwwear. His source is a DVD. Bitrate is does not matter. What digital device he tries to record with does not matter either. The DVD in copy protected and copyrighted. His only course other than analog is the break the law and use a bootlet computer program.

Whether we regard it as illegal or not does not matter. The government considers it illegal. Saying someone on AudigoN said it was OK is not a legal defense in court.

Thanks everyone! I guess I'll try an analog copy first and see how it sounds. Like Rwwear, the purpose of the copy is to listen to it on CD in my car- it's a concert video. What's so frustrating is that the owner's manual of the CDR says that under SCMS copy protection rules, "you can record digital program sources onto a recordable CD disc to create a first generation digital copy. You cannot, however record from this recorded CD disc to another recordable CD disc." If the sound quality is not acceptable, I will look at other options.

"you can record digital program sources onto a recordable CD disc to create a first generation digital copy. You cannot, however record from this recorded CD disc to another recordable CD disc."

Exactly. That language basically goes back to the copyright laws allowing a single archival copy for one's personal use.

It has never been legal to make more than one copy of any copyrighted recorded material, even though people have been doing it for decades. It wasn't until the advent of the CD, and the ensuing recordable CDs that record companies and distributors really started cracking down. In the days of cassette and reel to reel tape, the record companies weren't as concerned because they knew the best quality recording was always going to be an original pressing or tape recording, and any copies...and copies of copies were going to get progressively worse in quality each time a next generation copy was made. Of course, with CDRs, this isn't the case.