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Can you make a copy of a movie on DVD? Can you burn a DVD still in copyright onto a DVD? Well with the right software, yes you can. But is it legal? That depends. For starters it depends on which country you’re in and then on what the courts have to say. Remember the law is one thing but how the courts rule on it is another. In the United States there is the DMCA or Digital Millennium Copyright Act which, as its name suggests, is modern and deals with copying digital material such as on to a DVD. If you want the technical low down on the US Congress approved law, go here http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm When DVD burning software first became available, the courts in America ruled it illegal. That is no longer the case but improper use of the software is illegal. There is a major distinction here. The copyright laws vary from country to country but generally speaking the law allows fair use in copying something, for private use, private study and the like. But copying something without permission of the copyright owner and selling what you copy is illegal. In Australia they have The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) act which again is used to prosecute people who allegedly burn DVDs in an illegal way. More details at http://www.afact.org.au/ But what is illegal? There are grey areas such as burning only a part of a DVD or burning a DVD for research purposes. But one area which is black and white is going to a drive-in movie, using a camcorder to film the movie and then uploading it to a web site for anyone to download. If you are found guilty of that, you could go to jail for up to five years for each offence. And you don’t have to actually burn a DVD illegally. One charge is that you possess the equipment and you allegedly have the intention to burn a DVD illegally or possess an illegal DVD with the intention to make a copy or distribute a copy. Mind you the onus is on the prosecution to prove you had the intention. You might think you can use your mobile phone in the cinema to film the latest flick. Ushers today have night-scope goggles to spot people like you. And movies have watermarks which can’t be erased and which can identify the print. When thinking about burning a DVD the question is who owns the master copy? If you have made a home movie of your Christmas holiday, you own the master and can burn as many copies as you like. If you have a DVD of a movie which is still in copyright, then burning a copy may be illegal. If that sounds like a murky answer then it’s because the courts have given some murky rulings. In California the Copy Control Association believed it was only okay to burn a DVD if the DVD remained in the machine! The Court ruled otherwise. As the technology evolves so does the law. Try and keep up. |
