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The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.
Therefore to clarify:
- You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
- This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
- You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
- You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.
Legal or Illegal
- Thread starter gasit
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not sure really, kind of a gray area?
i mean, you could run a dvr with recordable dvds and "tape" things like most of us old-timers used to do with vhs.
might be ok for personal use, but not for resale, public showing, or rebroadcast. but that's just a guess.
i mean, you could run a dvr with recordable dvds and "tape" things like most of us old-timers used to do with vhs.
might be ok for personal use, but not for resale, public showing, or rebroadcast. but that's just a guess.
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I don't believe it to be legal if you are using a tv tuner card, but depending on where you live it may be. I think in the United States editing out the commercials may be illegal.
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The TV studios would like to to be illegal but the wonderful (at times) US government has given us a magical thing called fairuse which means that you can do what ever you want with it as long is it's for personal use, so you can record it to your HDD but you just can't burn it to a DVD and pass it around.
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At this time we still have our fair use rights. The television, movie and music industry are trying to take these rights away. If they are successful, the DVR's we all currently use from our cable and satellite services, including Tivo will become illegal. They would like to see all uses we have had since the first VHS and Betamax go away. So, you were not home when that TV show aired? Tuff, now you're going to have to pay to see it.
At this time there is no law to prevent us from using our computers as a DVR for personal use. You cannot break any other laws such as duplicating and re-distributing for profit or not. The works are copyrighted and I have no problem with that.
There are many fighting for our fair use rights. Any type of commercial exploitation of others work would be illegal still.
Personally have big gripes in this area.
Just picture this, You go buy a tape measure. This tape measure comes with a license that prescribes how, for what, and when it may be used. First it can only be used at one location. It is illegal to take it over to your friends house and use it there. It may be used only for measuring wood. However, you can buy a multi-use license which will allow you to use it at multiple locations. And they will also sell you a license for measuring brick and concrete.
At this time there is no law to prevent us from using our computers as a DVR for personal use. You cannot break any other laws such as duplicating and re-distributing for profit or not. The works are copyrighted and I have no problem with that.
There are many fighting for our fair use rights. Any type of commercial exploitation of others work would be illegal still.
Personally have big gripes in this area.
Just picture this, You go buy a tape measure. This tape measure comes with a license that prescribes how, for what, and when it may be used. First it can only be used at one location. It is illegal to take it over to your friends house and use it there. It may be used only for measuring wood. However, you can buy a multi-use license which will allow you to use it at multiple locations. And they will also sell you a license for measuring brick and concrete.
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im not sure about this but i would guess that it is ok for personal use because it;s just like using a vcr recorder or dvd recorder just putting on your ipod.
but i dont know thats just what i assume
but i dont know thats just what i assume
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Yes, it's legal for personal use in the US otherwise Elgato, etc wouldn't be able to sell their products here. What is illegal is sharing it, so for example all those TV torrent sites, etc.
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Ummm im guessing it would still be legal for the likes of Elgato to sell their product, it would just be illegal for consumers to use the product. A bit like the speed camera detector issue a few years back before they were legalised.
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Well the sites themselves aren't illegal, they're just trackers. It's the actual torrent users that are hosting the files.
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Not necessarily, the site is aiding the trade of illegal content. That's why several high-profile torrent sites have been shut down over the past year.
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