Is it legal to keep a backup copy of your DVDs and CDs?

Question

I lost some of my Original DVDs and gave some to friends. Is it legal to keep the backup copies?

Plus, a friend of my told me he heard its illegal to play a backup copy of a DVD outside your home. Is that true? Is that mean i can't play my movies on my laptop while travelling?

I would like to know what the law say exactly on this matter.

Answer 1

naw dude you fine. Anyways, they can't really arrest you or anything. I wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 2

Hey, good question. The CD and DVD police are not gonna see you, you know what I mean. Noone cares and so many people do it. Say you are on a bus or plane they are not going to even look inside your player, the only thing people will notice is maybe the brand of the player or maybe hear it a bit. A recorded CD/DVD all sounds and looks the same so they can't tell if you are playing a backup copy. The only time the law busts people is if they are selling it for their own profit. I mean say some weirdo saw your blank CD you recorded, so what just tell them a friend gave it to you. Noone can even prove you copied it unless they spied on you in your own home and caught you on video. Your word against theirs, so no proof so you are safe, play away, just don't sell.

Answer 3

For a definitive legal answer, you need to consult a licensed attorney. But here is some legal information to consider:

Your rights to make backup copies of anything for personal use extends only while you own the originals. If you give away or sell the originals, you generally need to destroy your backup copies as well.

Also, there is a special issue with commercial DVDs, independent of the movie content and copyright issues. There is a federal law (DMCA, see James's answer above) that prohibits bypassing encryption on media in order to make a copy. This includes bypassing the CSS encryption on most commercial DVDs.

So, even though you have some rights to make copies of media for personal use, such as transferring to different hardware, that doesn't extend to allowing you to bypass the the encryption on the DVDs in order to make the copy.

Again, where your specific legal rights and liabilities are at issue, you need to consult with a licensed attorney.

Answer 4

You can copy non-protected CDs all you want as long as you do not give away or sell the original or give the copies to someone else. You cannot legally copy DVD movies at all, even for your own use, becuase of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to circumvent copyright protections present on all DVD movies, even if the copying is a fair use.

Answer 5

You don't say what country you are in. Copyright law, and the law regarding copy-protection, do not extend beyond the borders of the state that enacted them. Thus the copyright period in the USA is 90 years from death of author (or for corporate "works for hire" from date of creation). In the EU 75 years. In Canada 50 years. If your CD is a copy of a very old recording it may be in the public domain.

This could be true of DVDs, except for the Digitial Millennium [2 n's] Copyright Act -- which has no force outside the USA.

The rules for backup copies of things (software, etc.) outside the USA may depend on shrinkwrap terms. Fortunately most contractual rights afforded by "shrinkwrap" track US law.

The likelihood of your being prosecuted for what you do in respect of copying and watching and listening to video and sound recordings in the privacy of your home solely for the use of your family and not involving the Internet is nil, unless it concerns child porn or espionage.

You may wish to have a look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation Web site for more info. http://www.eff.org/

I haven't looked at the Wiki entry, but chances are it is reasonably accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA If you want to get into the subject in any depth, you need to research the GATT Uruguay Round documents on intellectual property. http://www.wto.org/

Answer 6

It is legal to back up your Media! Good luck breaking the codex used on DVD! There is no program, except on line, that will copy DVDs!

As far as I am concerned, I bought it and I bought the rights to them! As long as they are not sold or used for commercial purposes, I make all the Cd's I want and I could care less what those rich jerks say!!

Answer 7

Any movie that I have bought, I have a back-up copy of. Don't really care what laws they have in place. If the movie industry doesn't want me doing it, Then they need to make a better disk that doesn't scratch as easy. They can all KMA, as I will be making a back-up copy of my last 100 movies in the next week

Answer 8

The copy rights are : copy, but dont distribute,
that means you can make as much backup copies as you want as long as you dont sell them or give them away. and of course you can use these copies on your laptop or anywhere, just like the orignal CD or DVD itself.
And good luck...

Answer 9

You can back up your purchased music and videos, but you can't sell, loan, rent, or give the backups away to anyone. I would also bet that you can't watch the original on one machine and the backup on another at the same time.

Answer 10

No and certain. No, because you've defeat reproduction protection, which doing so is prohibited, even to workout your truthful use correct to again up the DVD. certain, you've a truthful use correct to again up your DVD,and also you would possibly want to, if that pesky DRM or the regulation preserving it weren't there.

Answer 11

As long as you do not intend to produce copies to sell then you are fine.