Posted by PTravel on 11/04/06 19:35

"Citizen Bob" <spam@uce.gov> wrote in message
news:454cd8b8.2843609@news-server.houston.rr.com...
> On Fri, 3 Nov 2006 11:55:50 -0800, "PTravel"
> <ptravel@travelersvideo.com> wrote:
>
>>Format conversion comes within Fair Use and I would argue that, DMCA
>>considerations aside, it would extend to video as well as audio, e.g. Fair
>>Use permits me transfer a downloaded Google video to my iPod. It's been a
>>while since I've had reason to look at the AHRA, but my understanding is
>>that it precludes infringement liability for copies made for personal use.
>>You may be correct that it does not authorize sharing.
>
> Fair use includes sharing as long as it is not for monetary gain.

And that's completely wrong.

>
> Don't tell me that you haven't watched a tape you made of a TV show
> with your wife. That's sharing.

The Copyright Act protects a number of interests in the form of reserved
rights. The ones relevant to this discussion are the right to make copies,
the right to prepare derivative works, the right to distribute, and the
right to publicly perform. There is no such thing as "the right to share."

Viewing a tape with my wife implicates the right to make copies and the
right to publicly perform. Under Sony v. Universal, making a copy in this
context is Fair Use. A viewing by immediate family and friends is, by
definition in the statute, not a "public performance," so that the
performance right is not implicated.

>
> The entertainment industry is behaving in its usual greedy manner,
> like before, and like before it's going to get its wings clipped.
>
>
> --
>
> "First and last, it's a question of money. Those men who own the earth
> make the laws to protect what they have. They fix up a sort of fence or
> pen around what they have, and they fix the law so the fellow on the
> outside cannot get in. The laws are really organized for the protection of
> the men who rule the world. They were never organized or enforced to do
> justice. We have no system for doing justice, not the slightest in the
> world."
> --Clarence Darrow

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