Help me clear up this gray area..

[ShrooM_DoughKiD]

If you rip a dvd to your PC that you own, is that considered piracy?

What if you share that ripped that movie with your friends, is that piracy?

 

[Shoqiyqa]

It depends where you are, I suspect.

We may or may not have a law here (I lose track [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/more-than-3600-new-offences-under-labour-918053.html]) that allows a copy to be made in another format or for backup purposes, such as a tape copy of a CD for use in the car or a hard-drive copy of a CD for use in a 24-hour playlist, which might cover copying the DVD onto your HD.

I think the same licence rules would apply to playing it, so you could play it on your computer while your friends are there and watch it together but making one copy on each computer would count as illegal copying. You might be able to argue your way around it if you make multiple back-ups and only watch it while you're the one holding the actual DVD on your shelf ... although most include a "no lending" rule so you'd have to keep selling the DVD to your friends ...

 

[qazmatoz]

Ripping is safe as far as I know. The problem just lies with the redistribution of a replicated copy.

 

[BonsaiK]

If you rip a dvd to your PC that you own, is that considered piracy?

What if you share that ripped that movie with your friends, is that piracy?

Maybe, and yes, respectively.

Ripping your own stuff for purely personal use may or may not fall under piracy rules, but realistically nobody is going to give a shit. Sharing, yes that counts as piracy, if it isn't material that your created or hold the copyright or distribution rights to, there's no excuse I can think of that could stand up in a courtroom how sharing it could be okay.

 

[kjrubberducky]

I rip DVDs to my PC, convert them to WMA, and download them to my PSP. I absolutely refuse to by the UMD movie disks.

Duplication with intended distribution, i.e. friends, is a definite no-no for me; personal use only and all that.

 

[sms_117b]

In the UK as far as I'm aware, ripping for a back up is fine, shareing is not.

 

[Cherry Cola]

What did you think Piracy was? Using magic to just make movie files appear?

Piracy is ripping something copyrighted from a CD and sharing it with others.

 

[AvsJoe]

You know, I remember the class in Kindergarten where my teacher taught us all to share and how it was a "magical" thing. Why is sharing illegal these days? I can understand the laws against file-sharing but why is, say, lending out a DVD to a friend or playing a 4-player splitscreen in one living room so frowned upon? What happened?

 

[ShrooM_DoughKiD]

The other problem would be, if you ripped a movie, and sold the hard copy yet retained the soft copy. again, wrong?

 

[Paksenarrion]

If I were to pirate an anti-piracy program, would that be piracy? If I was a corporation, would that still be piracy?

 

[Kair]

Whether or not it's piracy is irrelevant. If it's piracy, its the right thing to do.

Sharing of information is the basis of human development. We will not let the market economy put a price tag on information.

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

If you rip it to say, your iTunes, and then let your friends watch it, it isn't illegal.

 

[ShrooM_DoughKiD]

If I were to pirate an anti-piracy program, would that be piracy? If I was a corporation, would that still be piracy?

Heavy... Very Zen like

 

[ShrooM_DoughKiD]

Whether or not it's piracy is irrelevant. If it's piracy, its the right thing to do.

Sharing of information is the basis of human development. We will not let the market economy put a price tag on information.

Nice.. me likes the way you think.

 

[Gincairn]

If you rip it to say, your iTunes, and then let your friends watch it, it isn't illegal.

Surely that comes under either unauthorised broadcasting or lending? Both of which are against copyright law.

Hell to be honest you can't even lend a store-bought DVD to a friend without being in breach of copyright, realisticly in order to follow the law to the letter you are required to get permission in writing by the copyright holder prior to said lending.

What a great world we live in.

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

If you rip it to say, your iTunes, and then let your friends watch it, it isn't illegal.

Surely that comes under either unauthorised broadcasting or lending? Both of which are against copyright law.

Hell to be honest you can't even lend a store-bought DVD to a friend without being in breach of copyright, realisticly in order to follow the law to the letter you are required to get permission in writing by the copyright holder prior to said lending.

What a great world we live in.

Really? Well that's bullshit. I don't really care though, friends borrow things from friends, it's how it works.

 

[Tallim]

In the UK as far as I'm aware, ripping for a back up is fine, shareing is not.

It is actually illegal to make a backup in the UK. Not that it is ever enforced. This includes ripping your cds to mp3. Which probably makes almost everyone in the UK a criminal in some way.

 

[Regiment]

Short version: Yes and yes, although few people will make a fuss if you're making a copy for personal use. Giving your friends free copies is technically piracy.

 

[vaderaider]

How about a better question, does anybody care?

 

[Necator15]

As long as you're not distributing it online, generally nobody will give a shit.

You're not going to get pulled over on your way to *Insert somewhere here* and have the cop say: "Have you been making digital backups of your favorite movies? Eh, punk?"