More accurately, it lets the studios maintain an illusion of piracy control while making life difficult for customers with legitimate needs for clean video. An example is people with simple VCR's/TVs who don't have a second input on the TV and have to pipe the DVD output through the VCR, even though they aren't recording.

Meanwhile, you can download free Windows programs which will decrypt a DVD and give you video in whatever file format you want. And the studios are failing miserably at controlling the _real_ infringers. On the streets of NYC you can buy copies of current (and as-yet-unreleased) movies. Sure, some of these are from people in theaters with camcorders, but you could also buy SVCD's of Lord of the Rings on 34th St. *before* it opened. *That* was an Academy copy ("For Your Consideration"). The studios should get their own houses in order before making life difficult for consumers, particularly as the steps they take have no effect on organized pirates.

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