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

[Craig Miller]

Craig is reporting the law.  I mentioned that there are times 
when duplication is legal -- certain fair use allowances -- but 
was replying to the statement that because she's trying to 
get around the encoding format and region encoding, 
copyright is not an issue.  Copyright continues to be an 
issue without regard to technical issues of how one goes 
about making the copies.

Craig.


At 10:08 AM 12/12/06 -0800, Michael Hart wrote:
>
>
>Craig does not take into account that this is for in home use,
>and different laws may apply. . .there are all sorts of things
>you can do for home use that can't be done commercially.
>
>Craig seems to be only reporting one side of the issue.
>
>
>Michael
>
>On Tue, 12 Dec 2006, Craig Miller wrote:
>
>> At 08:21 AM 12/12/06 -0600, John Franklin wrote:
>>> On Dec 11, 2006, at 11:58 PM, Mary Towner wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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?
>>>
>>> I am not a lawyer, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but PAL
>>> and NTSC are not digital rights management schemes or copy
>>> protection, they are just encoding forms. Copyright law should not
>>> care about them -- what's a violation under the DMCA, at least, is
>>> deliberately working around a system designed to prevent you from
>>> using something. If you were dealing with a piece of text instead of
>>> video, the equivalent question would be "this is saved as ASCII text;
>>> can I re-save it as Unicode?" And, of course, it doesn't matter --
>>> what is copyrighted is the images on the screen and the sound coming
>>> out of the speakers, not the exact sequence of zeros and ones
>>> recorded on the DVD. (Otherwise, copying the thing to a videotape
>>> would not be a violation.) The issue is the copying, not the
>>> encoding. If you are sure that it would not be a violation to make a
>>> copy and watch the copy instead, it shouldn't matter whether the copy
>>> is the same format or not.
>>
>> Actually, while your theory sounds good, it doesn't deal with
>> the purchase of licensed product -- encoded by format and
>> (in the case of DVDs) region.  You are not allowed to
>> duplicate DVDs (or video tapes or text books or novels or
>> computer software etc.) because you have purchased a
>> single copy of a copyrighted work.  Making more copies can
>> be (but is not in all cases) a violation of the copyright holder's
>> rights.
>>
>> Craig.
>>
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Craig Miller         Wolfmill Entertainment        craig at wolfmill.com
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
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>>
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craig Miller         Wolfmill Entertainment        craig at wolfmill.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~