[PW] Re: copyright issues--PAL to NTSC

[swguardian-stumpers at yahoo.com]

As with others, I am not an attorney, except in representing myself in my own court matters.
   
  I see here and interesting question. You are speaking of a PAL encoded DVD that you wish to copy to NTSC. The first question I would ask is where is this DVD copyrighted? If it is sold only in the DVD format of PAL, then it is quite possible it is copyrighted only in the areas that use that format. 
   
  NETSC (National Television System(s) Committee) is used largely in the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and a few other areas. 
   
  PAL (phase alternation by line), on the other hand, is mainly used in Europe (except France), as well as many countries in Asia, Africa and Oceania. 
   
  There is also a third, SÉCAM (Séquentiel couleur à mémoire) which is used in France and some Asian and African countries. 
   
  The next question I would ask myself is whether I am going to cause any financial loss to the holders of the copyright. This is what all the copyright copy battles are fought over. 
   
  Here in the US, the question of making one copy, for your own personal use of a video/CD/DVD has already been answered by the courts, in that it is permissible as long as you have legally purchased and retain the original. It does not say anywhere as to what format your personal copy has to be. The idea of the personal copy is that you don't have to wear out your original from repeated use. 
   
  As for myself, I have a personal copy of all my CD/DVD movies and computer programs, but when I give away or sell the original, I destroy the copy I had made. I also burn my own copies as conversion services will not copy any material that is copyrighted, unless you either own the copyright or have a legal license to make a copy. 
   
  Mary Towner <mtowner at prairienet.org> wrote:
  Hi everyone! This one's for me, so no roaring hurry.

I purchased a 2 DVD set from Amazon.co.uk as a Christmas present for my 
husband, Bob. The set is only available in PAL, region 2 format, which 
means our regular DVD player/TV combo can't play those discs. However, I 
knew the software on Bob's itty bitty laptop could handle the translation of 
PAL to NTSC, so I bought the set anyway. And the DVDs played just fine on the 
laptop when I tested them.

The DVDs contain hours of footage featuring Bob's hobby. I know 
he'd prefer to watch on a larger screen or perhaps invite friends over to 
enjoy the show with him.

I considered obtaining software that would allow me to convert and 
burn the set as NTSC region 1 discs, or perhaps go to one of the local 
stores that offers PAL to NTSC conversion services. Then we could play the 
DVDs on our regular DVD player. But I have no idea if this is a violation 
of copyright, so I held off.

I'm assuming that the software in Bob's laptop that converts the digital 
code on the fly for viewing isn't a problem, since that's temporary. But 
I'm guessing that converting and burning a permanent disk in a different 
format might violate subsidiary rights. I don't know if "translating" a disc 
could be considered fair use.

I'm away from work this week but did some preliminary 'net searches. 
Legal reference isn't my specialty. Has anyone else run into this issue before?
Is it a copyright violation to convert PAL to NTSC?

aTdHvAaNnKcSe,
Mary


-- 
Mary Wilkes Towner mailto:mtowner at prairienet.org 
Adult Services Librarian phone (217)367-4405 
The Urbana Free Library fax (217)367-4061 
210 W. Green St., Urbana IL 61801



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