Due to copy protection that exists on nearly all DVD movies, it is not possible to backup a DVD without the help of other software. After AnyDVD came on the market, it has become the software tool of choice for many users to copy DVD movies for backup purposes.
Legality of DVD Decryption Software
Due to the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA), it is illegal to use DVD decryption software. However, federal law allows consumers to make a backup copy of a commercial DVD or CD. Currently, it is permissible for consumers to backup a DVD movie but it's not permissible to use DVD copying software that strips copy protection.
AnyDVD HD
AnyDVD gets around the limitations of the DCMA by acting as a background driver program in Window's System Tray that doesn't have the ability to write data to another DVD. Data read from a DVD will have its copy protection removed by the AnyDVD driver program before being passed to other programs. AnyDVD by itself cannot copy movies. Free DVD copying or ripping software such as ImgBurn will see a DVD free of copy protection because AnyDVD strips the incoming data stream of any copy protection or encryption before it gets passed to another programs such as ImgBurn, which cannot handle copy protected discs without the help of AnyDVD.
