[mythtv-users] recorded shows

Joseph A. Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Mon Jan 5 11:46:13 EST 2004


On Sunday 04 January 2004 16:03, Michael wrote:
> > To do so would violate US and international copyright law...
>
> I once missed a show on Fox and went to their website to find out how
> to order a copy.  Their official FAQ said to ask friends and
> neighbors to see if anyone had taped it.  It seems that as long as it
> still contained the commercials that noone would have a problem with
> it.


Yes, but you'll note they didn't say to ask friends and neighbors if 
they'd taped it and made thousands of perfect copies available to all 
comers.  Yes, they *want* you to watch their programming; it's no big 
deal to them (regardless of legality/illegality under fair use) if an 
individual borrows a videotape from a neighbor to catch a show they 
missed (you're one more viewer that they might not have had otherwise).  
However, in the digital, networked world where that same recording (now 
in digital form) can be downloaded and viewed by millions of people, 
the increased demand for that one recording has made it into a 
commodity for which the creator (or legal distributor) expects 
compensation.

Basically, when it was just the occasional person here & there borrowing 
a (lower quality) videotape, they didn't care.  Now they do.  The 
legality of the situation hasn't really changed (making/sharing copies 
for anyone other than yourself/your household has always been illegal), 
but when it was small-scale it didn't pay for them to pursue it; an 
entire network of MythTV (or ReplayTV or TiVo or KaZaa, etc) users is 
definitely worth their while, as recent legal activity has shown.

Just my $.02.

-JAC



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