Elsewhere I have been pondering on how government rules produce interesting workarounds. I was using the software product AnyDVD from SlySoft Inc as my angle into this, and it occurs to me I ought to mention the product here as well.
My ponderings were about the essential illegality of this product, given that it decrypts content-protected DVDs, which breaches such laws as the Digital Millennium Act in the United States and similar legislation here in Australia. The main reason I purchased it was to overcome Region Code restrictions on my computer’s DVD drive, and secondarily to eliminate User Operation Prohibitions.
And it does all this very nicely, without being in any way noticable. As it happens, it has decrypted a dozen or so DVDs very nicely as well, entirely quietly and in the background, with no noticable lag. Costs $US39.