It is illegal to copy PROTECTED materials, but not things you made, that are public domain, or otherwise unprotected.
It is also not illegal in general (although there are exceptions) to make yourself back-up copies of other materials as long as only one copy is in use at any given time.
One of the big problems we are running into is trying to create systems that allow free copying of legal stuff, but does not allow it for protected items. So far, most attempts for this are either costly, irritating, or easily defeated.
The problem extends beyond movies and music, however- books, articles, photographs, art, etc. all suffer the same problem.
If we got rid of the technology to make such copies, we'd have to get rid of photocopiers, digital and other cameras, and indeed- paper and pencils.
Obviously, this does not make sense. The system basically depends on the honesty of most people.
The big problem now is that things like peer-to-peer (p2p) sharing makes it very easy for the average person to unwittingly make their entire digital library available to the entire Internet.
2007-01-24 03:56:58
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answer #1
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answered by Madkins007 7
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All the answers here are very good and have a (surprisingly) accurate idea about copyright law. I would add this:
Manufactures HAVE been sued for "contributory copyright infringement." That's what the NAPSTER case was about, and the Courts found that Napster WAS liable for contributory copyright infringement by virtue of the P2P system that they offered and the fact that they knew copyrighted material was being distributed, did nothing about it, and their system did not have a substantial noninfringing use. The original case, believe it or not, to address this issue was over the first VCR (Sony's Betamax)-- and it went before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court determined that "time shifting" (i.e. recording a program now and watching it later) was a fair use, which would be a "substantial noninfringing use" (compared to archiving, or editing out stuff, which would be a copyright violation).
So other different technologies and producers have to meet this same standard.
2007-01-24 12:05:52
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answer #2
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answered by Perdendosi 7
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It's not illegal to make backups of your legally purchased software and music. you can not give away, nor sell those backups.
That being said, not all software and music is copyrighted, so even if it were not legal to back up things, there would still be a legal use for that equipment.
2007-01-24 11:40:04
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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A company is allowed to produce a product if the product has a legal use.
It IS legal to copy music/movies for the purposes of backing them up.
It IS legal to copy music/movies for the purposes of changing the medium that they are being played on (DVD to PSP, CD to mp3 player, etc).
2007-01-24 11:40:31
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answer #4
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answered by Ricky T 6
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Also, what if you are the originator of the copyrighted material? SHouldn't you legally be able to copy your own work? For example, I do digital wedding photography and give my clients CDs of my photos from their event. If I weren't allowed to own my own copying equipment, I would have to have it done by someone else, who I would invariably have to pay, thus increasing my cost and my client's expense. Same goes for videographers, djs, bands, etc.
2007-01-24 11:49:31
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answer #5
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answered by Woz 4
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