LoadPod: DVD movie loading service for iPod owners

OK, this is starting to get out of hand. Are we so precious now that we need to hire someone to come by our house, pick up our video iPod and our DVD movies for encoding and loading? I guess so, because this company is growing and now services several different major cities! And at nearly 35 dollars pop! Hey, when they come and give you your iPod back, they will even load the same films on our computer for you at no extra charge. Schweet! I wonder if they can set the time on the VCR too?

LoadPod, the nation's leader in iPod loading services, has launched a DVD movie loading service for users of the new Fifth Generation "video iPod" in eight major U.S. cities. LoadPod picks up the customer's video iPod and DVD collection at their home or office, and returns the iPod fully loaded in a few days. Movies are encoded into 320x240 display format, ideal for the video iPod's screen, and take up an average of less than one gigabyte of iPod space apiece. iPod Movie Loading service is currently available in New York City, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Apparently, Loadpod "invented" the "iPod loading industry" way back in 2004 when they became entrusted as the first and only nationwide service to load a customer's existing music CD collection into their iPod via in-person service. Hey, I shouldn't knock it, if there wasn't a need, they wouldn't be here. Maybe I am just jealous as I didn't think of it. But it just seems odd as heck to me that we have to hire folks to perform such functions! To give you an idea (again, I am not picking on anybody) they will transcode your DVD movies and put it on your iPod for $34.95 per film. *cough* This is for 5 to 10 DVDs - the price drops as you have them do more.

The only thing I want to know is, how
the heck do they rip these movies legally? In my collection, they are
all saddled with CSS and I am not allowed to bypass the encryption! I
suppose they could actually play the movie and then capture it for
recording as it was playing, but this is for profit, not a backup for
personal use, so I am a bit confused. Maybe it's legal since they give the only
copy to the owner, but then they say they will put a second copy on a PC. Who
knows?

Here is what they say on the webpage: "This
service is only for full-length movies. DVDs of television series, live
concerts, etc., will not be accepted. This may change in the
future. Trailers, subtitles,
commentary and other "bonus features" are not included. We
simply load the movie itself from start to finish. DVDs must be the original store-bought versions and must be your
property; burned or other non-original DVDs will not be
accepted."

Source: Loadpod