legalities of copying...

[THoff]

There is a database of video capture devices at VideoHelp that provides details about the capabilities of tons of capture devices. The user comments usually cover Macrovision and any undocumented ways around it if applicable.

[erock1]

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. .

Stinky2,
I would like to explore your original post, that's why I quoted a part of it that I think needs to be looked at.

My question is as follows: The VHS that your wife purchased from the news station, is it footage of her and her study? You did start your post by stating that she and her study have been getting a lot of media coverage. If the VHS tape contains footage of her and/or her study, did she sign a waiver from the news studio? My point is, if the footage is of her and/or her study and if she signed a waiver and the waiver doesn't state that by signing she gives her her proprietary rights, then you can certainly make a copy for private use. If the footage is of her and/or her study and she didn't sign a waiver or release, than you can certainly make a copy.

I'm curious to know.
Erock

[Steve__A]

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.

There are several different levels of copyprotection, with Macrovision being one of the strongest. A milder form is a simple bit set in the video stream that indicates that the content is copyrighted and should not be copied. The ADS capture boxes will ignore this bit and will proceed with a copy. I had originally bought a TDK IndiCapture box but returned it because it would not record anything with the copy protection bit set. (I even tried making a VHS copy of a DVD on my ProScan vcr which had been mfg'd in the Toshiba factory so it did not have the electronics necessary for Macrovision to work.) As for the legal issues involved at that time it was still legal to use DVD XCopy to back up DVD's you owned to protect your investment.

I doubt that the TV station was using Macrovision on the VHS tape in question and suspect that it just had the bit set in the video stream which prevented it from being copied on compliant machines.

Steve

P.S. My ADS capture box also seems to ignore any form of Macrovision copyprotection.