Hey buddy,

I love my collection of Miyazaki movies, and something's been bothering me. It appears my roommate took my copy of Princess Mononoke and ripped a copy of it, which he then burned to a DVD. He did so using a program called "DVD Shrink," which somehow removes the copyright.

The ethics of this bothered me (my brother's an usher at a movie theater), but what bothered me more was the idea that it might've hurt the original DVD. I promptly checked the DVD, and now I'm seeing little black specks every now and then. I don't know if they were there before and I just hadn't noticed them.

So now I'm wondering, could that program have done anything to my DVD? Is that at all possible? If you could look into the program "DVD Shrink," and tell me whether or not it could have affected the original DVD in any way possible, I would immensely appreciate it. I need to put my mind at ease and know what's going on.

Again, it's possible that these black specks were there all along and my eyes were just more discerning since the DVD had gone through an unusual process. I don't think DVD Shrink could affect the original DVD, but I need an answer and an explaination.

If you want to know what I'm talking about, check your copy of Mononoke. Look at the blue Ghibli logo at the beginning, and look at it very carefully. Do you see any black specks? They appear, then disappear just as quickly...

Please, any help would be much appreciated, whether it's good news or bad news.

Thanks in advance, and please respond soon,
- JR

Hi. My dad has DVD shrink, and he copied DVDs from it straight, but didn't make it from a VHS like you did. (at least that's what i think you said, i am a bad reader) so I see nothing wrong with DVD shrink.

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Nope, mine wasn't from a VHS. It was from the original DVD to a burned DVD.

Thanks for the input, though.

By the way, you claim you're a bad reader, but you write well. You probably just misread my post (which is normal).

Oh, sorry! I guess it must be something else though. Good luck with trying again?

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I think the Ghibli logo has always had black specs at the beginning of all films. My copy has them too. I woulnd't worry about it. I don't know anything about DVD Shrink though, sorry about that.

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~Akarui Tsubasa~