[mythtv-users] recorded shows

[Jeff Monks]

> Fair use guidelines are offially known as "Guidelines for Off-Air
> Recording of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes"
> So fair use does not apply to you unless you are a teacher and then does
> not apply to HBO or other special services.
> I have included a link for info on Fair use below.
> Tom J
> 
> http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/ency/article.cfm/objectID/94F1539D-B61C-41
> 5B-BE3ED4F8BFE7F1F3/catID/2EB060FE-5A4B-4D81-883B0E540CC4CB1E

>From the page you link to:

"These guidelines (known officially as "Guidelines for Off-Air Recording 
of Broadcast Programming for Educational Purposes") do not have the force 
of law and have never been tested in the courts."

They're just guidelines for non-commercial, educational use of recorded 
copyrighted programs, agreed to by teachers and media companies.  This is 
different from the "fair use" that most people refer to when they talk 
about this subject.

Generic "fair use" exemptions in the 1976 Copyright Act were held by the 
Supreme Court to encompass personal non-commercial recording devices 
(originally the VCR, but presumably also DVRs) in 1984.  The ruling in 
that case includes the statement:

"One may search the Copyright Act in vain for any sign that the 
elected representatives of the millions of people who watch television 
every day have made it unlawful to copy a program for later viewing at 
home, or have enacted a flat prohibition against the sale of machines that 
make such copying possible."

In other words, the Copyright Act does not make it illegal to make or use 
such devices for noncommercial, personal recordings.