Question About Copying Tapes

[Philo and Gunge]

A long time ago (okay, 1996) my uncle coped my local video store's copy of "Kids For Character" and the video store never found out about it (I think).

This brings me to my question, how do video stores/libaries find out if a tape is copied or not? My friend said that you have to put in the real tape and not the copied tape. Is this true?

 

[sarah_yzma]

dubbing a tape for private usage? yes, I believe it is a loophole in the copyright law. a dubbed tape will work, although some have slight tracking problems.

 

[Luke]

I guess it's just a case of making sure you return the original tape back to them and not the copied one ?

There is certainly no technical way for them to find out if a VHS tape has been copied since the tape only plays.

 

[anathema]

Ok, let's clear some things up ;-)

Luke is correct: there is no way to detect whether a tape has been copied. There are various schemes that can be applied to the recording on the tape which attempt to prevent you from copying it. None of them are foolproof, and they don't quite do what Luke's suggesting ;-) They are also known to cause problems with normal playback of the original tape.

DVD copy protection falls into two camps: the analogue protection, which is similar to that applied to VHS, and the digital protection. The analogue protection is not a part of the disc itself - it's applied by the player, and it's perfectly feasible to have your player modified to disable this "feature". It does not "scramble" the signal; it merely messes around with the sync signals in a way which confuses a VCR but (hopefully) doesn't cause problems for a TV set. The digital protection is on the disc, and does scramble the data. It can't be disabled.

Sarah: the "loophole" you're thinking of is the so-called "fair use" thing. In principle, this allows you to make one copy of a piece of copyrighted material *that you have bought* for your own personal use (eg, copying a CD to use in your car's cassette player). Most software licenses allow you to make a backup for safety reasons. If anyone's reading this and thinking "hey, cool! I can copy my videos!", please bear in mind that the law varies from country to country. For example, I believe that the above loophole applies in the US, but it doesn't exist in the UK. I am not a lawyer, do not take any of the above as gospel!

 

[sarah_yzma]

*laughs* ok I won't take everything you say to heart

 

[Smy Guiley]

I've always wondered a few things about the "Fair-use" principle...see if anyone can help me.

First of all, I used to run a business copying vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks, and VHS to CD's for people, and this falls well within this category. However, since it is called a "Safety copy", and this is OK, what do they expect you to do with the copy if something terrible happens to the original? I mean, you're allowed to have a copy if you have the original, so if the original is damaged or lost, you can still have a copy to enjoy, but if you no longer have the original, do you have to destroy the "safety copy"? And, if so, what is the point of the "safety copy" if you can't keep one for safety? Secondly, who sets out to prove what records/tapes/CD's you ONCE owned and now only have a copy of? And how do they prove it's a "borrowed" or rented copy and not one you made off of something you bought and then tragically lost in a mudslide or something? My wife and I once had over 1000 LP's, but they were too big to move with us a few years ago, so we made some cassette mixes of our favourites, then put those tapes on CD's. Where does that fall? Of course we owned the records at one point, but who can prove it? On a mix with 20-odd songs on it from records I once owned, what if ONE song was from one of my neighbour's records?

Just wondering. My head is spinning now.

eric

 

[sarah_yzma]

*knocks on eric's door* I'm sorry you will never see the light of day again....you have violated the copyright laws that only I understand.

 

[Philo and Gunge]

Well, I constantly rented "Kids For Character" when it came out. My guess is that my parents tried to find it in a store but didn't find it. So my uncle rented it and copied the WHOLE tape. I told my friend and he said it was 'almost illegal'.

BTW, wait just a minnizle. How come they didn't have "Sesame Street" or Muppet stuff in "Kids For Character"?

 

[dmx10101]

I've always wondered a few things about the "Fair-use" principle...see if anyone can help me.

First of all, I used to run a business copying vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks, and VHS to CD's for people, and this falls well within this category. However, since it is called a "Safety copy", and this is OK, what do they expect you to do with the copy if something terrible happens to the original? I mean, you're allowed to have a copy if you have the original, so if the original is damaged or lost, you can still have a copy to enjoy, but if you no longer have the original, do you have to destroy the "safety copy"? And, if so, what is the point of the "safety copy" if you can't keep one for safety? Secondly, who sets out to prove what records/tapes/CD's you ONCE owned and now only have a copy of? And how do they prove it's a "borrowed" or rented copy and not one you made off of something you bought and then tragically lost in a mudslide or something? My wife and I once had over 1000 LP's, but they were too big to move with us a few years ago, so we made some cassette mixes of our favourites, then put those tapes on CD's. Where does that fall? Of course we owned the records at one point, but who can prove it? On a mix with 20-odd songs on it from records I once owned, what if ONE song was from one of my neighbour's records?

Just wondering. My head is spinning now.

eric

First of all, your taking this stuff waaaaaaaaay to seriously. Do you think some guy in a suit is gonna come to your front door and say "I need to come in and check all your media items to make sure don't have any illegal copies." No, that's never gonna happen. So how else are you going to get in trouble. Most of that stuff has to do with morals and what you consider right and legal. As long as your not making tons of copies of something and then sellong them on ebay, it doesn't really matter. If you make a copy of a cd you bought, then sold that original cd to a used cd shop or on ebay for a few bucks thats ok. You paid for the blamk cds, cases, cd burner, and computer to burn it with, So it's not like it's free, pluse whatever you sell the original cd for is not going to be as much as you paid for it. Like I said nobody is going to come to your house and arrest you for that unless you go blabbing to everybody "Oh I'm making copies of all my cds and then selling the originals." Some people do that when they are in need of some extra money, copy all their music cds and then sell the originals. I'm not saying its right or wrong, its just a matyter of what you think. Well, thats my two cents on the matter. Don't flame me for this.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

First of all, I used to run a business copying vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks, and VHS to CD's for people, and this falls well within this category. However, since it is called a "Safety copy", and this is OK, what do they expect you to do with the copy if something terrible happens to the original? I mean, you're allowed to have a copy if you have the original, so if the original is damaged or lost, you can still have a copy to enjoy, but if you no longer have the original, do you have to destroy the "safety copy"? And, if so, what is the point of the "safety copy" if you can't keep one for safety?

The law in the United States (and pretty much only the United States) permits you to make a safety copy for personal use. What most people don't realize is that when you buy a CD or tape or DVD you are not "buying" the tape or disc. What you are doing is licensing the right to utilize the recording contained on the tape or disc, subject to certain conditions.

What is important to remember is that although you can make a copy for personal use you can't sell or distribute it. The same law applies to TV shows you tape - you can make a copy to watch later, but you can't sell that tape or give copies to your friends (this is why tape trading is an illegal activity).

If you were to loose the original you can certainly keep the "safety" copy. But if you were to sell the original you should destroy the safety at that point.

Here's some copyright info links that are helpful if anyone wants to know more:

- Chilling Effects (has extensive FAQs on copyright issues)

- Ten Big Copyright Myths (debunks common copyright myths)

- The Copyright Files (more copyright info)