[mythtv-users] Slightly OT - How many People have Video libraries over 8TB?

[Simon Hobson]

Another Sillyname wrote:

>  > Yes, everyone does it, but in the UK there is no 'fair use' provision that
>>  allows you to format shift from DVD/BR to anything else, nor to allow you to
>>  keep TV recordings beyond a reasonable time for timeshifting (and even that
>  > isn't actually allowed in law, just something that's officially ignored).

>I'd challenge the basis of your presumption, all my recordings are
>only for personal usage and as I have all the physical BR and or DVDs
>for anything in the library that was produced from that medium I'm not
>concerned.

I'm not going to get into an argument, but you really ought to learn 
a bit about some basic laws. You have breached the copyright in the 
disks you have ripped and the TV programs you have kept - and there 
is not, under UK law, any exemption that allows you to do that for 
personal use. However, there is a distinction in that once you start 
making any profit from such action then it now* becomes a criminal 
rather than civil offence.

* I forget the name of the law that made it so, but it's only in the 
last year or two.

In the same way, it is still illegal in the UK to rip CDs to your 
computer or portable player.

That is the law here as it stands - whether you like it or not, and 
whether you accept it or not.


As I say, everyone does it, and in practice the chances of getting 
noticed are so slim as to not be worth bothering about. However, 
publicly announcing it (especially given the size of your collection) 
might not be the most sensible idea.

As a secondary thing, it's the sort of thing that certain types of 
people would like to pick up on and use as justification for ever 
more restrictive copy protection, and tighter laws to make it illegal 
to try and bypass those restrictions. To some people, those 13TB 
represent a lot of material that they would rather you paid for again 
(and again, and again). In the case of TV, the rights holders have 
only licensed it for the one or two broadcasts - and will want paying 
again if it's re-shown at a later date. Also, by watching a 
recording, it means you won't buy the DVD (lost sales) or watch a 
later retransmission (lost advertising revenue).

We are quite lucky here to have a lot of unencrypted, free to air, 
and decent quality TV. There are a lot of people who see that as 
wrong - and would be more than happy to encrypt everything so they 
can sell you more advertising and/or access to those encrypted 
programs.


So, as I say, everyone does it - but don't shout about it ;)

-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
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