Why is renting DVDs still a business, even though it's obvious people can rip DVDs with their PCs?

1) Not everyone in the world is immoral.
2) Not everyone in the world is computer-savvy.

Pirating is a crime.

You are allowed to “rip” a copy as a backup AFTER you buy it. What you are doing is stealing.

Technology is getting better to prevent ripping. It is a cat and mouse game.

Video rental stores are relics leaning towards extinction with the advent of things like Netflix. Why bother ripping it when you have 24/7 access to streaming it live over the internet, after all.

Some things I’d rather pay for than get for free – especialy if it’s illegal.

The main reasons have already been said, the biggest one being 1 from @MrItty in my opinion. Not everyone is immoral enough to want to do it. Now, whether you think it’s immoral or not depends from person to person, but many people still believe that intellectual property is property, and the rightful property of the mind that spawned it. As such, renting makes money off of those people, because it is far cheaper to rent then own.

For instance, I will admit that I used to steal almost all of the music I listened to, mostly because I did not have the money. I disliked it, but I wanted the music, so I did it. Now I’m older and wiser, and have access to what amounts to music renting for far cheaper then it would be to buy all the CDs i want (which I still don’t have the money for. I like an extensive list of artists), and so take that option instead of stealing.

And, could I take all that newly ‘rented’ music, copy it, and strip the DRM from it? Almost certainty, I’m rather tech savvy. But I don’t want to.

Why continue to sell cars since people just steal them anyway? If people were smart they’d just steal their own car.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. You may get to steal features by ripping them if you know how, but you can’t get a copy of Avatar, Spiderman II etc UNTIL they video store gets them 1st. You may prevent them from continuly getting money from you but they will still get it the 1st time and that is why they are still around.

@Hypocrisy_Central I don’t think that’s really true. If a rental company was built around “we’ll screw you first”, things would look rather different. The companies make some money off those people, yes, though there’s also people that steal the videos outright and then rip them. The real way they stay in business is through the legitimate people who don’t use the service as an easy way to steal.

Just because something can be easily done, doesn’t mean you should do it. It’s illegal. So I support our local movie store and I rent a ton of movies from them. It’s only a few bucks to rent one. It’s a whole lot more money to hire a lawyer when they arrest your ass for pirating. Think about it.

I think renting from a chain dvd store is going out of style, as much as it sucks to say that. I consider it a fun experience.

Because lots of people aren’t cheating b*stards!

In Germany often you pay less than 1 euro for renting a DVD legally. Why all the illegal hassle?

If people are honest, and they have expendable money, they have no reason to steal art property.

But if you don’t have the money, I can easily see why you wouldn’t want to deny yourself access to copies of such things.

Redbox rental: Legal, $1, ready to watch.
Ripping: Illegal, takes about an hour to rip it, costs you your time plus a blank disk to put it on. Works only sometimes, and you have to figure out how to get the original disk in the first place. Sure, maybe you can get it from the library, but there’s a good chance the scratches on it will keep you from getting a clean rip. Even if they have what you want, you might well have to wait 2 weeks to get it.
Which of these sounds like the better deal?