So I understand you can not back up a dvd unless you own the original, but what about if you back up a pay perview movie fromyour tivo to a dvd-r? Is there any legal issues there?
well, unless you burn the movie you rent from the store, which is illegal, i dont think renting a movie off of pay-per-view would be any different. Hence PAY-PER-VIEW.
theres is a law to do with the betamax video that will determine if that is 'legal' or nor in the near future but as stated yep its illegal to 'backup' what you do not own as original have fun
Let's not sound too pessimistic but yes. Now a days, someone everywhere will say what you are downloading or copying is illegal if it suits them. Used to be when VHS was just starting the argument was that it was legal to tape anything you recieved over the Airwaves from broadast services. That is changing today. Even series are being challanged because of the sales potential to the companies. For Example, my pastime is to tape Star Trek: Enterprise from UPN. Encode them and place them on DVD. I was putting them up on the BitTorrent circuit using the nx01.us tracker. Got a letter from UPN saying I was violating their syndication rights. So remember it is a matter of prospective. Here is my rule. See if you agree with it. I record it. (Payed for it or not). I watch the movie by myself. Safe!!!!!! Let anybody else watch it. Warning!!!! Warning!!!!! Just as Jimmy Cricket said. Let your conscience be your quide.
What the courts have seemed to uphold in the past is that it is not illegal to record something that you can legally view now for time-delayed viewing later. They have also upheld the right to make a back-up copy for safety. But, they have upheld is that you do not have any legal right to distribute in any means and for any purpose intellectual property belonging to soeone else--without first paying the royalty on that copy. Of course, if you have a royalty-paid copy, you can give or sell *that* copy--but not make another for yourself or others *if* you do. Everything in between is a gray area that keeps intellectual property attorneys and their mistresses in BMWs All of the above is also subject to a little fudging by the *very* gray "Fair Use Doctrine." I used to teach Video Prodution and covered Intellectual Property Law in a couple of the lessons. [Edited to add...] Like many unenforcible laws (Remember 50-watt CB rigs), the bottom line is, if you don't flaunt it, nobody's going to bother you--and they sure as hell aren't going to prosecute unless you are flagrant. bob
