I was curious to what would be considered pirated. For instance, say someone owns a movie on DVD that was 4:3, and copied or downloaded the same movie that was 16:9, or a Hi-Def copy. The person does own the movie, but the format is different, would that be considered a pirated copy?

Or say someone owns a CD that has 10 tracks, but the CD gets released with bonus tracks. The person owns the album, but now that the album is extended, would downloading those bonus tracks be considered pirated?

[** BTW, before someone accuses me of pirating, I'm not saying I'm pirating anything, just a hypothetical question... ]

Yes on both counts. It's not fair, but neither is the world.

I'd have to agree with dev/null10 as well, on both counts.

One must remember, it isn't merely that the owner of the items actually bought their copies legally; the question is, where did the person/place who is offering the downloads, get THEIR copies? Most likely, wherever they got them, legally or not, they are probably not allowed to be putting them available for download in the first place, which, by extension, makes it illegal to download them.

What the MAFIAA are most concerned with is mass distribution of pirated material, so for example ripping something and posting it online and giving everyone links to it, that would probably get you into a lot of trouble if they caught you.

On the other hand, you do have the right to make one backup copy of legal material you have purchased. I don't think that they would care too much for 4:3 vs 16:9, but HD they probably do care about. You also have the right to share legal material with your friends ... they can't stop you from loaning your music CDs to your friends, or even giving it to them, but they do not have the right to make a copy. You also have the right to record shows and movies from TV. Taking all these into account, you can understand that things are not as black and white as the MAFIAA might want them. How would they know if the movie you have on a DVD is recorded from TV or not (usually there are brand marks, like HBO, etc, but sometimes not) ?

So, here's the moral to get from what I'm trying to say:

Do NOT post copyrighted material on the net and give EVERYONE links to it, because you could get into trouble.

However, if those that do have links to it are trusted, and the site is secure ...

i guess wearing a tri-corner hat, eye-patch, and a parrot on your shoulder would be crossing the line.

i recently repurchased a cd (that i lost 2 times) again and when i was about to rip the tracks to my mp3 player, i noticed i misplaced it... so i downloaded it.

i guess that makes me a criminal.

Aaaharrrrrrr!!! Shiver me timbers, me hearty, did ye lubbers mention pirates? Ye'll be a getten the black spot!


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Arrrrgh ... it depends on the laws at the time and place ...

I'm not an attorney and do not play one one TV.

You may own the media (CD or DVD) but you watch the video or listen to the audio under some sort of license. That license dictates what you may and may not do under the law.
Under what is called "fair use" -- which varies from law to law -- you may take reasonable steps to protect what you bought through back-up copies and such. It also covers photo-copies of printed materials for study [you make notes and highlight a copy not the original]. Adding tracks to a commercial CD is "derivative work".

This issue is called intellectual property law and is completely out of sync and out of touch with technology. The property holders want money, money, money. Their managers and moochers do too. Notice how many bands not have web sites for distribution while avoiding traditional moocher (er, record company) channels.

If you want to understand the issue -- not the law itself, but the issues involved -- I recommend a visit to the Creative Commons License web site http://creativecommons.org/.

Cheers, [wait...does that violate the copyright of some TV show...]
~~~ 0;-Dan

I think a more interesting case is where you purchase a seasons DVDs of your favorite television program. Not long afterwards, one of the discs develops a crack in the middle. Downloading a replacement might be piracy, but in this case is not immoral.

Yeah, for example, I accidentally scratched a game CD once, I still had the serial number, so I just got it off the net because I had to. Technically, I own the game, so it is legal.

I think they also say this when you get ROMS for SNES and Megadrive and the like, if you own the game, then you can download them, if not, then it says something about deleting them within 24 hours. Yeah ...

Hi GrapeFruitGirl,

You are partially right here... and i say partially, because this issue is way much complex than you put it here... :

The ISP that puts the illegal copy for download has some sort of income with the volume of the intenet traffic it provides... that said income is subjected to legal taxes, taxed by a "legalized" tax administration that raises funds that go to Hospitals, Schools, Justice and territorial administration expenses...

Yet the origin of these funds is somewhat "grey"...

So I rephrase the question... is it "Illegal" to perform an action which resulting income will be "legally" administrated...?


... now somebody tell me...

BRGDS

Alex

Recording movies/shows off the TV is OK
Ripping the commercials out is NOT ok
Redistributing the video without commercials is definitely NOT ok
Redistributing the video with commercials is gray but legally not ok.

very grey, most probably as black as the rest. the TV channel has to pay royalty fees to the program owner/producer, who in turn pays royalties (according to their contracts) to the entities in the show.
So even if you do redistribute with the commercials who is going to pay the royalties?

Its all a bit naff really, but at the end of the day do YOU work for no money. I know i don't, and can't, cause that is how we have made the world run, money money money



PS i'm not a lawyer . (that word lawyer doesn't look right, did i spell it right? i wonders)

I'm sure the RIAA/MPAA are actually a lot stricter than this, but IMO as long as it's for personal use (i.e. not redistributing online or some such), then it's fine. Besides, it's not like there's someone from their "legal" department constantly looking over your shoulder anyway...

I think if the world weren't so incredibly dominated by $$$, then none of this "legal" bull**** would even exist.

(Or, at the very least, it wouldn't be so damn restrictive!)

Hmmm ... ya think. You know, I'll bet you it would be a much better place too, much happier, safer, heck maybe even a utopia.

Heh, what am I thinking, gimme that $$$$$$$$$

I don't really see how the ISP has anything to do with this entire situation, except maybe in a case where some sort of body deemed "authorized" to interpret legality vs illegality (such as the police) decide to pursue charges based on their interpretation, and subsequently demand that the ISP provide name/address/IPaddress whatever of an "offending" party (or, the ISP rats out the offending party before-hand by illegally sniffing traffic, or whatever...)

But the ISP itself is not the hoster of said illegal warez, it's a customer.

Your analysis above is akin to let's say, me stealing cars, and taking them to a auto-painting place for a nice paint-job, before I fence the cars overseas. In this situation, I did wrong by stealing the cars; the purchaser overseas does wrong by (maybe unknowingly) purchasing or posessing stolen property; but what about the painter (the ISP)?? He hasn't done anything wrong-- just doing his job, painting cars.

Sasha