DVD CCA and Features Restricted by Manufacturers

The DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) is an organization primarily responsible for the copy protection of Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. The Content Scramble System (CSS) was developed for this purpose to prevent copyright infringement, but also set blocks to some legal uses of the media. The association is also responsible for the controversial Regional Playback Control (RPC), the region encoding scheme which gives film studios regional control over DVD distribution.


Since 2001, members included film distributors such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. They archived the remarkable case versus Jon Johansen whom they alleged wrote DeCSS. The case was dropped in January 2004. CSS decrypting software (such as DVD Copy) allows a region-specific DVD to be copied as an all-region DVD. It also removes CPPM, RC, RCE, APS, user operation prohibitions, ARccOS, RipGuard, etc. In addition, they also archived a suit DVD CCA v. Bunner against people who distribute DeCSS, seeking ban to stop further distribution based on commercial confidentiality claims. The ban was finally denied because CSS was no longer a secret by the time the lawsuit occurred.

Features restricted by manufacturers

All hardware manufacturers (notably DVD player/burner manufacturers) carry out DVD CCA-mandated enforcement features on their products; some go even further than that and carry out additional features to limit ripping, for example:
RIPLOCK: an artificial restrict on ripping speeds. Some drives have alternative 3rd-party firmware can remove this to enable faster ripping.

RPC-1: there is a region code present on the drive, and it will be changed if a DVD from another region is read. Usually, there is no limit on the number of changes.

RPC-2: some manufacturers put a limit on the number of times that a drive's region code set to be changed (usually 5 times or less); after this, the drive becomes "locked" on the last region set and is unable to be changed. Some alternative 3rd-party firmware can achieve unlimited region changes. Even automatically remove the code.

Bit setting/Book typing: this is a feature which makes DVD+Rs readable by older DVD players that can play DVD-ROMS only. Some manufacturers cripple this feature on their drives. Again, some alternative 3rd-party firmware can burn DVDs appear as DVD-ROMs and are playable by older DVD players.