Many iPod Video users who are frustrated with the device’s inability to load DVD movies have turned to the suddenly popular TVMyPod, a Massachusetts based company that loads the movies for them; but they may not be aware of the potential legal repercussions.

TVMyPod has met with immediate success, said Vijay Raghaven, co-founder of TVMyPod said, despite looming legal battles.

“We’ve gotten a surprisingly strong amount of interest in the service,” Raghaven said. “Lots of people have come to us telling us that it’s a huge hassle to load their iPods and that they just don’t have the wherewithal to do it. It’s a one-to-one rip time, so it takes about one minute to convert one minute of video, so people really don’t want to take the time to do that sort of thing.”

Following the October debut of Apple’s new iPod Video, which promised to revolutionize the world of portable entertainment by allowing consumers to watch video on-the-go just as readily as they would listen to music, users found it difficult, if not impossible, to load content from DVDs onto their new iPod.

Inspired by this dilemma, Somerville company TVMyPod has a creative solution, but one which raises tricky legal issues.

With TVMyPod, a customer orders a brand-new iPod Video through the company and the DVDs they want placed onto it. TVMyPod then orders the DVDs from Amazon.com, loads them onto the iPod and sends the iPod along with the original DVDs to the customer.

The customer pays only for the iPod and DVDs; the service itself is free for the time being because the company buys their iPods at a wholesale prices and sells them at retail ones, said Raghaven.

But, although Raghaven was not at liberty to discuss the legal implications of his business, it has been speculated that such a service could violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which “criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright.”

By copying DVDs to iPods, it is possible that TVMyPod might be in violation of this provision.

But Vijay claimed in a Jan. 20 article on Yahoo! News that his service falls under “fair use” provision of the Copyright Act of 1976 and is therefore legal.

“This whole industry is on the cusp of a technological revolution … that makes a lot of the laws on the books obsolete,” Raghaven said. “We don’t feel like we’re doing anything wrong.

“If the person buys an iPod, we go and buy it from Apple. If the person buys a DVD, we go and buy it from Amazon.com, so we don’t really see an legal issue with it,” he continued.

Raghaven estimated they have received between 75 and 100 orders for their loaded iPods, believing that his customers are looking to get the most out of their iPod.

“I think people [bought] these iPods thinking ‘I’ll just throw all my video onto it, this’ll be awesome,'” he said. “Then when they get it they realize it’s not very easy at all and they end up using like the audio iPods. It’s sad, because they’re not using it to its full potential.”

Representatives from Apple and the Motion Picture Association of America, the industry’s advocate, were unavailable for comment on TVMyPod.