Hollywood movies that have been released on DVD or Blu Ray will usually come with encryption on the disk to help hinder pirated copies from making it online or for sale on the street. Much to Hollywood’s dismay, this encryption is easily foiled by any Linux system user with even a rudimentary knowledge of technology. By default, applications like Brasero will refuse to read these encrypted disks, but you will see how to overcome that obstacle shortly. In this tutorial, we will show you how to clone or burn an encrypted DVD using Linux.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install brasero and libdvd-pkg package
- How to clone or burn encrypted DVD using Linux
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Any Linux distro |
| Software | brasero, libdvd-pkg |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
Clone / Burn Encrypted DVD using Linux step by step instructions
The Brasero application will allow us to clone a DVDs content onto our hard disk. Afterwards, the same application can be used to burn the contents to a new disc. The
libdvd-pkg (called libdvdcss in the past) package will allow us to access the DVD as a block device and thus disregard its encryption.
- To get started, open a command line terminal and install the necessary tools for the job:
Ubuntu and Debian based: $ sudo apt -y install libdvd-pkg brasero Fedora based: $ sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm $ sudo dnf install rpmfusion-free-release-tainted $ sudo dnf install libdvdcss brasero
- Next, open Brasero and find the option to create a disc copy.
Create disc copy in Brasero
Follow the next few prompts and you will be left with a 1:1 copy of your DVD or Blu Ray’s content. You can then burn that to another blank DVD.
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, we saw how to clone an encrypted DVD on a Linux system. The attempt of movie studios to impede movie buyers at creating their own copies is ultimately in vain, as this encryption is easily defeated by a simple package widely available on all Linux distros. After all, once you purchase the DVD, it belongs to you. Are users not within their rights to create a backup copy if they please? That is for you to decide.
