90 percent of consumers want ability to copy DVDs

Hollywood may frown on it -- and in fact it's sort-of/mostly illegal -- but consumers far and wide say they want the ability to copy DVDs from the original disc to their computer, either for backup or for the convenience of not having to deal with discs when you want to watch a movie. According to a study by the National Consumers League, 90 percent of consumers (all those polled own computers) say they want to be able to copy a DVD to a computer the same way they save music from a CD.

The survey, which polled 1,000 consumers aged 18 to 64, shows significant dissatisfaction with digital rights management in the DVD business as it stands today, with 51 percent of respondents saying they felt bothered by the fact that DVDs were encrypted (and illegal to crack) and 46 percent complaining that they'd previously had to repurchase DVDs due to loss or damage.

Still, most consumers say they feel DVDs to be a good value for the money: 89 percent say they're happy with the price they pay for discs, though 55 percent note they're buying fewer movies now due to the economic slump. What might get things moving again? You guessed it: 40 percent said the ability to freely copy DVDs might encourage them to spend more on discs then they do presently.

Legal or not, there are plenty of people out there who haven't even given DVD copying a whirl: 82 percent say they've never copied a DVD from disc to computer at all.

As a lover of odd statistics, I also enjoyed the survey's aggregate data about your typical media-hungry consumer: The average respondent to the survey owns 78 DVDs (bought at an average cost of $15 each) and 111 music CDs, and every six months he or she downloads 48 songs from the Internet, rents 11 DVDs, watches 6 movies on the web, and goes out to the movies 4 times. The size of the average Blu-ray collection: a whopping 3 discs.

Check out the full study results (in PDF format) by clicking here.