here's the deal. my wife is doing a medical study on osteoporosis. she and the study have been getting quite a bit of media coverage, and she bought and received a VHS tape from one television station of the footage they showed twice on their regular news. my question is twofold : (a) is it legal for me to copy the vhs tape and put it onto dvd - and therefore have a longlasting copy, and (b) when i tried to copy it by recording onto my dvcam direct from the VCR, i got a "copy inhibited" message, and discovered on playback that the footage is unuseably pixelated - is there a way to get past this encryption? and if so, would i be breaking any laws? these are just for personal use, if that's important...
and NO, i didn't manage to tape the show myself. hence the bought copy.
legalities of copying...
Moderator: Ken Berry
-
maddrummer3301
- Posts: 2507
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 10:24 pm
- Location: US
The tape is copyprotected meaning the author doesn't want copies made.
You can contact the authors and personnel that have the rights to the tape
and receive special permission to copy parts off of it.
That is usually not done though.
Request a dvd version of the video.
Whatever project is being worked on if the material is displayed to the
public or classroom you need to obtain the rights to display the material.
It doesn't matter if the material is copyprotected or not. You still need the
rights/permission(s) to display the material (with the exception of non-profit home viewing).
Hope this helps,
MD
You can contact the authors and personnel that have the rights to the tape
and receive special permission to copy parts off of it.
That is usually not done though.
Request a dvd version of the video.
Whatever project is being worked on if the material is displayed to the
public or classroom you need to obtain the rights to display the material.
It doesn't matter if the material is copyprotected or not. You still need the
rights/permission(s) to display the material (with the exception of non-profit home viewing).
Hope this helps,
MD
-
stinky2
thanx for your response. half my problem lies in the fact that the tv station in question ONLY makes VHS copies (having ascertained this fact from their media department after asking for a dvd originally!). and i ONLY want to have a copy for home use - it wouldn't be shown to students or anyone else. i've had too many tapes deteriorate on me to think that VHS is a permanent solution! i shall contact the tv people and see what can be done, but methinks they'll put me in the "too hard" basket and fob me off. if anything comes of it, i'll post back to the forum.
cheers
cheers
-
rwindeyer
The following represents personal opinion.
We are in danger of arguing ourselves to death and obsessing unnecessarily about a non-issue.
It is technically true that copying anything may be illegal. Thanks to David Reece for reminding us of that. This needs to be balanced against the reality that copying from TV via VCR, and now DVD recorder, is well nigh universal. At the end of the day we will all do as we see fit.
It is my opinion that if one were to open a cinema, charge nightly admission, and screen unauthorised tapes or DVDs, this would be enough to prod the TV studios/film studios/producers etc into action, and the already overworked police would be forced to find time to take an interest. If, however, John Q Citizen has recorded something from the TV, and it still happens to be collecting dust in his video cabinet, then no-one will know or care.
I think the spirit of the law is far more important than arguing about the minutiae of the letter. If you don't exhibit works in public, you are not depriving anyone of income, and no-one will get upset. Whatever you do or have in your own home for private purposes you will never be bothered about.
For your specific question stinky2 - this is obviously for your own use only; in my mind it's a no-brainer. Make a copy any way you can.
We are in danger of arguing ourselves to death and obsessing unnecessarily about a non-issue.
It is technically true that copying anything may be illegal. Thanks to David Reece for reminding us of that. This needs to be balanced against the reality that copying from TV via VCR, and now DVD recorder, is well nigh universal. At the end of the day we will all do as we see fit.
It is my opinion that if one were to open a cinema, charge nightly admission, and screen unauthorised tapes or DVDs, this would be enough to prod the TV studios/film studios/producers etc into action, and the already overworked police would be forced to find time to take an interest. If, however, John Q Citizen has recorded something from the TV, and it still happens to be collecting dust in his video cabinet, then no-one will know or care.
I think the spirit of the law is far more important than arguing about the minutiae of the letter. If you don't exhibit works in public, you are not depriving anyone of income, and no-one will get upset. Whatever you do or have in your own home for private purposes you will never be bothered about.
For your specific question stinky2 - this is obviously for your own use only; in my mind it's a no-brainer. Make a copy any way you can.
Copyright
If you live in the UK then it would be worth you looking at what happened to the late Bob Monkhouse. He was an avid collector of pre talkie cinema films of the classic silent movie era featuring artists such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, etc. I believe court action was taken out against him because he was copying them because the original film was deteriorating. I believe he won the case because he proved he was a collector of such material. Whether this approach would apply I do not know.
You may find this information useful or totally useless in the ever continueing saga of copyright.
Howell
You may find this information useful or totally useless in the ever continueing saga of copyright.
Howell
-
rwindeyer
Re: Copyright
The reference to this case is here.Howell wrote:If you live in the UK then it would be worth you looking at what happened to the late Bob Monkhouse. He was an avid collector of pre talkie cinema films of the classic silent movie era featuring artists such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, etc. I believe court action was taken out against him because he was copying them because the original film was deteriorating. I believe he won the case because he proved he was a collector of such material. Whether this approach would apply I do not know.
You may find this information useful or totally useless in the ever continueing saga of copyright.
Howell
A critical point: Monkhouse won his case by proving that although he was in possession of these films, they were purely for private viewing for him or invited guests to his home and in showing them he was not making any financial profit or gain. The decision of the court to find in favour of Monkhouse's defence set a legal precedent by clearing up what had up to that time been something of a grey area in copyright law. It also cleared the way for the future of the home video market, which was about to emerge.
-
david reece
Bob Monkhouse died sometine ago.
In which case that precedent has been overruled with the Video Recordings act in the UK. You cannot back up a video recording of a tV program for your own use unless you have the copyright holders permission.
In point of this particular postee.
In the UK you have a 15 minute of fame clause.
Basically if you appeared on TV (not in drama) and it ws not in the national interest then you can apparently preserve this for posterity.
I do not want to poo poo the party here but just remind people of legal issues.
If you do copy a copyrighted program of a film expect the consequences if you are caught has to be the message here.
Do not ask people here shouldnt i copy this or that! one it is enticement and carries teh same penalties in teh Uk as the copyright thief.
In which case that precedent has been overruled with the Video Recordings act in the UK. You cannot back up a video recording of a tV program for your own use unless you have the copyright holders permission.
In point of this particular postee.
In the UK you have a 15 minute of fame clause.
Basically if you appeared on TV (not in drama) and it ws not in the national interest then you can apparently preserve this for posterity.
I do not want to poo poo the party here but just remind people of legal issues.
If you do copy a copyrighted program of a film expect the consequences if you are caught has to be the message here.
Do not ask people here shouldnt i copy this or that! one it is enticement and carries teh same penalties in teh Uk as the copyright thief.
-
gordon_fan_24
Think about the logic there, if copying a tv program for personal use was cpoyright theft, then 99% of the population of North America could be charged, almost everyone has a VCR, it is not right to charge people if they just copy a program for personal use and have no intention to make any kind of profit off it, weather it is to save an investment (copying to dvd to prevent tape degrading over time) or just to watch the program again.
-
THoff
-
ejskater16
it sounds like you are merely looking for a backup copy, which i think is legal. there's ways around it, despite the copyright placed on your VHS. for example, the "ADS DVD Xpress" (you can buy it at wall mart) is a simple box the you plug your red-white-yellow video and audio cables into from your VCR, DVD player, or whatever it is you may wish, and then a usb cable comes out of the box and into your comptuer. it's usb 2.0, and the quality remains fine. this is bundled with uleads video studio 7 se DVD , so it's going to work nicely with your copy of videostudio 8 (assuming you have it). just capture your video in there, and burn it to DVD. maybe it's illegal, but if it is, for your purposes, it seems highly unprobable that you could get into any trouble. good luck!
-
THoff
-
david reece
You need a Macrovision remover
TECHNICAL - You need a Macrovision remover box, such as The Clarifier. You hook it up to the analog video cables between the "player" and "recorder". Some video capture cards, such as my Hauppauge PVR-250, ignore the Macrovision so I don't need a Macrovision remover.
LEGAL -In the US we have "Fair Use", which makes it one hundred percent legal to make personal-use non-commercial or archive copies. Every public library I've ever been in has Xerox machines. This is for Fair Use copying of all that copyrighted materal in the library. You can make DVD copies of your VHS movies. You can copy a CD to keep in your car. You can tape (or TiVo) the Super Bowl and play it back every day! You can invite your friends to come-over and watch the "replays." Interesting though, at the end of every NFL football game, they say it's a violation even to "describe the game"!!! It is also OK to alter your personal copy. You can write in your books, white-out all the dirty words, and even cut-out the last chapter and paste-in your own, if you dont like the ending!
Apparently, Macrovision removal devices are legal in the USA for ligitimate copying purposes. On the other hand, CSS decrypter programs seem to be illegal (in the US). This seems to conflict with "Fair Use"... But, it's also generally illegal to possess a lock-pick set, but it's not illegal to pick the lock to your own house.
LEGAL -In the US we have "Fair Use", which makes it one hundred percent legal to make personal-use non-commercial or archive copies. Every public library I've ever been in has Xerox machines. This is for Fair Use copying of all that copyrighted materal in the library. You can make DVD copies of your VHS movies. You can copy a CD to keep in your car. You can tape (or TiVo) the Super Bowl and play it back every day! You can invite your friends to come-over and watch the "replays." Interesting though, at the end of every NFL football game, they say it's a violation even to "describe the game"!!! It is also OK to alter your personal copy. You can write in your books, white-out all the dirty words, and even cut-out the last chapter and paste-in your own, if you dont like the ending!
Apparently, Macrovision removal devices are legal in the USA for ligitimate copying purposes. On the other hand, CSS decrypter programs seem to be illegal (in the US). This seems to conflict with "Fair Use"... But, it's also generally illegal to possess a lock-pick set, but it's not illegal to pick the lock to your own house.
-
mikecowley
Fair Use of purchased VHS tape.
Another device that will clear up the Macrovision is the Video Copy Master made by Sima.
-
mikecowley
Fair Use of purchased VHS tape.
Another device that will clear up the Macrovision is the Video Copy Master made by Sima.