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Anyone know the story of RipIt4Me?

Mike89

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One of the best kept secrets, the whole mystery of RipIt4Me. From it's popping out of nowhere beginning, the mystery of who wrote it, and then it's sudden disappearance. When it was suddenly gone, people either had their hands over their mouth, eyes, or ears. Nobody saw, heard or said a damn thing about what happened. Digital Digest Forum went from being the place to be to a shadow of it's former self almost overnight. It turned into a bunch of scared rabbits where even now years later you still can't go there and mention the word "ripping". Someone over there got castrated rather badly.

Anyway I was always fascinated with the whole RipIt4Me saga (still use the program in fact) because of the mystery from start to finish. Even now years later the full story has never been told.

So anyone know the story?
 
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Basically the same thing in very general terms that happened to DVD Decrypter and Fix VTS.

Sony, MPAA, and the movie studio's and other concerned parties said either quit what you are doing now, or face legal suits and possible jail time.

And like you said, Digital Digest went from a good forum to junk overnight.

Since approximately 2001 ripping programs have been a primary target for Sony, MPAA, RIAA, and movie studio's and other concerned parties.

They don't want you, to be able to do whatever you want to, to a disk you own. They want to keep copyrights even if you own the disk.

Similar to underground oil rights on your property.
 
I knew the general skinny. With DVD Decrypter, LUK himself came out and told the story of what happened. With FixVTS, I think that guy was associated somehow with RipIt4Me. He was mysteriously "mum" about what happened. The maker of DVD Shrink from what I heard just quit making the program and went to work for Nero to make Nero Recode (quess he wanted to get paid). RipIt4Me was different from the rest. From it's sudden appearance on the scene, the author remained anonymous, a full fledged support forum (Digital Digest) was very efficient in getting accurate updates made without anyone mentioning names. It was something that they (whoever THEY are, I have my own guesses as I'm sure others do too) managed to pull off quite nicely, that is until whatever happened happened. A true Underground movement is always quite an interesting subject and RipIt4Me was about as underground as you could get.
 
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The maker of DVD Shrink from what I heard just quit making the program and went to work for Nero to make Nero Recode (quess he wanted to get paid).

My understanding is that the product we knew as DVD Shrink wound up being owned by the industry and they effectively killed it that way. Acquire and stop development. A good technique to kill a product. I'd also expect them to own the source code. The story of the author going to work for Nero is one that I have never been able to actually get a clear answer on. It's a good legend. Sure, Recode sure looks like DVD Shrink in ways but maybe that was intentional but not the work of the original DVD Shrink author.

With respect to RipIt4Me, I believe much of it came down to gag orders and threats by the industry. Some people have told more detailed accounts once time had passed but, yes, others remain mum on the topic.

FixVTS might never have found itself in trouble if not for the fact that RipIt4Me used it as an addon and later incorporated the code for what FixVTS did into the program, itself.

Anyway, I am not going to claim to know the whole story because I don't.
 
I think the Country of origin has a lot to do with it also. From the skinny out there on this subject, it seems the author (or authors) may have been based in Australia. Not a good Country to be in trying to pull off anything to do with copy protection.
 
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Mike89,
You are correct as the author was from Australia. The desist order came from Sony and (as they were the owners of DVDDecrypter at this time) getting essentially a court order and if memory is correct the Digital Digest forum ripping forum essentially shut down. The author still posts on 2 forums but he will not help anyone w/ ripping questions. His name and moniker was posted by a paper in Australia when this happened but most people knew who it was

DVDShrink was never closed or sold. He just quit developing it and if the rumors were correct he was paid very nicely by Nero

DVDDecrypter was the one that got into trouble due a 2003 law in the UK and Lightning UK basically just gave them the program along w/ signing some forms

Jeanl w/ FixVTS did exactly what they asked and the program is still around as it was not a ripping tool

Look here for more info: http://www.afterdawn.com/news/artic...s_arccos_group_takes_down_ripit4me_and_fixvts

Lightning UK's last letter about DVDDecrypter: http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2005/06/06/dvd_decrypter_--_gone_forever
 
The story of the author going to work for Nero is one that I have never been able to actually get a clear answer on. It's a good legend. Sure, Recode sure looks like DVD Shrink in ways but maybe that was intentional but not the work of the original DVD Shrink author..

I don't know if the author of DVDShrink went to work for Nero, or just licensed the code, or for that matter if Nero robbed the code (I highly doubt that). Whatever the case, the similarities between DVDShrink and Nero Recode are more than just appearance. They really do share a great deal of code - particulalrly the transcoder. Even the registry settings are identical.

The 1st release of Recode was indeed pretty much DVDShrink - with a Nero looking and simplified user interface.

However, I totally agree that I doubt the author is actively working for Nero... I base this on the fact that Nero added bugs as it went along.. I don't see the real author as being capable of doing that - and in that manner.

I also think that if he was really on board at Nero - they would have switched the ripper by now to rip via titlesets as opposed to filesets.

-W
 
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Thanks for the correction Carolina Mike. :) I got the DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter histories intermixed in my memories.
 
I don't know if the author of DVDShrink went to work for Nero, or just licensed the code, or for that matter if Nero robbed the code (I highly doubt that). Whatever the case, the similarities between DVDShrink and Nero Recode are more than just appearance. They really do share a great deal of code - particulalrly the transcoder. Even the registry settings are identical.

The 1st release of Recode was indeed pretty much DVDShrink - with a Nero looking and simplified user interface.

However, I totally agree that I doubt the author is actively working for Nero... I base this on the fact that Nero added bugs as it went along.. I don't see the real author as being capable of doing that - and in that manner.

I also think that if he was really on board at Nero - they would have switched the ripper by now to rip via titlesets as opposed to filesets.

-W

Why would Nero add bugs as it went along? I have read this mentioned a few times in the short time I've been looking into this stuff. Would they intentionally do this? I'm not familiar with the said "bugs".
 
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