Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: creation/distribution of vcd/dvd backups

I can't comment about what any specific company is doing, since I have not researched their business methods and there may be facts unknown to me which would affect my analysis. However, generally there is no legal basis for the claims of companies which say they are selling "backups" of copyrighted and/or patented material like software and videos. They are selling unauthorized copies without paying royalties to the legitimate owners, and are calling these copies "backups" in the hope that consumers will either believe the sales are legal or will at least be willing to delude themselves into making purchases they know they should not be making.

So how can these companies stay in business? In the long run, they can't. But shutting them down takes time, and until this is done they can bring in substantial sums of money. They can be even more profitable if they don't actually ship the products their customers pay for; I wouldn't trust any of these companies to honor their commitments, given their obvious disrespect for the law.