[mythtv-users] Broadcast Flag Article mentions MythTV and quotes Issac

[Andy Long]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:57:20 +0000, Allan Stirling
<Dibblahmythml0015 at pendor.org> wrote:
> Andy Long wrote:
> >> On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:09:36 +0000, Allan Stirling
> >> <Dibblahmythml0015 at pendor.org> wrote:
> >
> >>REALLY gets my back up. Again. This is what the media companies are
> >>trying to (rightly) prevent with the broadcast flag.
> >
> > No, this is not "rightly" something that media companies should be
> > allowed to prevent.  Under current law, they CAN'T prevent it.  It is
> > perfectly legal of you to lend a copy of a movie/TV show to a friend
> > to borrow and watch.
> 
>  From my reading, this only applies to the FIRST copy (ie the original
> work, as broadcast). Does anyone have a reference for this allowance to
> lend a non-derivative copy?

Since a copy has to be transfixed to a medium to receive copyright,
how exactly does broadcasting qualify?  This isn't an attack against
you, just something I have oft wondered.  Nonetheless, it seems to be
splitting hairs on an issue.  So, if you don't own the original
filmstock a movie was shown on, but instead only own the DVD, no one
should be able to watch it with you?  Your friends shouldn't be
allowed to borrow it?  The DVD is not the original copy.  It is only a
copy of the original copy transfixed on a different medium.

By similar logic, it would seem libraries across the country are
committing mass infringement, since I know of few libraries that hand
out original manuscripts.  Any I have been too hand out copies of
copies (read: books).  And if you tape music off Top 40 radio and lend
it to a friend, is that a copyright offense?   I am certainly not a
lawyer (yet), but it would seem that even if this is what copyright
has come to mean, that we are letting fair use be destroyed in the
name of protecting a legal fiction (aka intellectual property).

I am certainly not advocating mass infringement, but let's be
reasonable here.  The framers of our Constitution intended for their
to be a balanced, "leaky" copyright system.  Perfect control over
Intellectual Property was never intended, and in fact was outright
rejected by both Madison and Jefferson as a bad idea.  The purpose of
copyright was to give incentive to produce while allowing for the
transfer of ideas from person to person.  We certianly have a system
that MORE than compensates the originator of a work.  The broadcast
flag only further upsets this balance by making us come more near to
perfect control of IP, which I - as well as many others - believe is
both unhealthy for maintaining a creative environment and a bad
principle for a democratic country.  In every other instance where a
new form of technology has upset the previous scheme of distributing
copyrighted material (player pianos, radio, television, cable, VCRs,
etc...), we have relied on the market to find the solution, not
imposed government regulations to keep the powers that be in business.

> 
> > Would you assert that when you have friends
> > over, they shouldn't be allowed to watch TV at your house because they
> > don't help pay your cable bill?  If you are the person who rents a
> > movie at blockbuster, should your wife/girlfriend/kids have to also
> > rent the movie before they can sit down and watch it with you?
> These are all seperate issues, since you are watching either the first
> copy, or timeshifting for your own personal use.
> 
> > The
> > broadcast flag is trying to enforce a legal lie that you are the only
> > person who should be allowed to watch content that came from your
> > television, when both previously written law and common law say
> > otherwise.
> 
> > What she advocates doing is legal, and should remain legal
> > as a form of fair use.
> >
> Again, references. The only one I can find that answers this specific
> question is:
> 
> http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=434043
> 
> Which says this is *not* legal.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Allan.
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