Easy DVD Burning

One of the most important aspects of the law is that it changes. New laws are constantly being written. And this is particularly true with copyright law and how that relates to digital recording.

The digital age did not exist a few years ago. Then, very slowly, it started. And that meant the law was behind when DVD burning became all the rage. The law takes a while to catch up with what is happening in the world.

But technology waits for no man. Once DVDs replaced video tapes, along came the software manufacturers with programs which could enable you to burn DVDs and to do it easily. The law took its time but a few years ago ruled that this type of software was illegal. Now that has changed. You can now buy legal software which is designed to help you burn a DVD.

At one time the law stated it was illegal to burn movies to a DVD. Then that law changed and it is now legal under certain circumstances. But one thing has not changed over the years and that is piracy.

We’re talking here about pirates and the copyright laws.

Once upon a time there were no copyright laws. Charles Dickens wrote stories and Gilbert and Sullivan wrote comic operas and some people used to publish these tales and shows and not pay the creators a cent. It was not illegal to make copies or to sell those copies. You couldn’t sue anyone who pinched your work.

Today, if you illegally copied someone’s material such as a DVD movie, you could go to jail.

Copyright laws set out to protect your property from theft. The laws give any poet, filmmaker, songwriter, architect, scriptwriter, etc the opportunity to stop their work being copied without permission and to be paid compensation if it is.

Copyright is all about the right to copy and burning DVDs is covered by the copyright laws.

A movie studio makes a movie and makes money when people go to the cinema to see the movie or buy or hire the movie on DVD.

There is a huge market for movies on DVD.

But it’s dead easy to copy a DVD. So if a modern-day pirate gets a DVD and makes copies and sells those copies, the movie studio gets nothing. It is being robbed. The pirates are making what are called ‘pirate copies’ of the DVDs.

But who cares? Why should you worry so long as there are cheap pirate copies of movies available for you and others to buy?

Legal, Practical and Moral Issues

There are strong anti-piracy laws. Some people who make thousands of copies of DVD movies have been fined heavily and even been sent to jail. If you buy a ‘pirated’ movie, you are handling stolen goods.

If the pirated DVD you buy is faulty, you will have no-one to complain to. You will not get your money back. If the pirated DVD damages your equipment, you will not be able to seek compensation.

Would you like it if someone took your property without your permission and sold it to make money and gave you nothing? Of course not but millions of ‘pirated’ DVDs are available for sale.

If the movie makers lose money because of pirated DVDs, the movie makers could go out of business or certainly cut down on the number or type of films they make. Who loses then? Certainly the actors, writers and technical crews lose, but you lose too. You will have fewer movies to watch. There will be fewer movies made. If the movie business loses too much money, it can go out of business.

Think about these things next time you go to buy a movie. If you help the pirates, you will be hurting a lot of other honest people including yourself.