[mythtv-users] Need "life without cable" clarification

[Richard Morton]

In the UK at least recording a tv and radio broadcast for the purposes
of timeshifting is permissable under law. I have found similar
provisions in US law below. However the DMCA may explicitly prohibit
the recording of copyrighted material from the Internet in the US.

However the waters are probably muddied with respect to recording
cable and satellite services, especially encrypted channels by the
companies terms of service and the recording from set top boxes;
however done, bypassing the companies equipment (again in the US) is
probably prohibited by terms of service.

However as speaking in generalities about recording from equipment is
fine cause it is protected by the fair use case law in the US, UK and
probably other countries; afterall it is only analogous to the use of
video tape recorders.

The United States Supreme Court has answered this one for us in SONY
CORP. v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC., 464 U.S. 417 (1984), available
at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/464/417.html.
 In that case, the Court was called upon to answer whether recording
televised content on a video tape recorder constituted copyright
infringement.  The court found that although technically the act of
recording such content did infringe copyright, it was a permissible
fair use as long as the recorded content was used for noncommercial,
PRIVATE, time-shifting, i.e., to record content otherwise legally
viewable to watch at another, more convenient time.  Note that the
court said PRIVATE time-shifting.  To record cable content for a
friend who does not have cable is clearly not a private use--moreover,
your activity deprives the cable company of revenue (they would
clearly prefer your friend to subscribe).  This is not a fair use, in
my opinion, and could subject you and your friend to claims of direct
copyright infringement by both the cable company and the owners of the
copyrights in the content broadcast on the cable system.  For relevant
penalties, see Chapter 5 of Title 17 of the U.S. Code at
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/17/chapters/5/toc.html.