How many of you remember copying Records over to cassettes? Or recording movies from places like HBO or Showtime on to the VCR. This kind of Piracy is something that has been going on ever since the ability has been there. Who has never made a "Love Tape" and given it to their Girlfriend / Boyfriend? Was that Piracy? And where was the Government stand on this issue back then.
The music industry considered it piracy back in the day...
...anyone remember this?
I think there is a difference between giving a mixtape to a friend and uploading copyrighted MP3s to MegaDownload or whatever, making them available to the whole world.
Just to give a little legal background (from waaaay back in my "previous life" as an attorney and trying to remember Copyright lectures...) the Government, as well as Sony
was there "back then" in the early days of VCR. Actually, the BIG case involved
BETAMAX...remember that!!??
The focus regarding Betamax and VCRs came down to an issue of "time shifting" where the Court ruled that the personal, non-infringing use of a copy of a program to watch at a later time was considered "fair use."
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As an aside, I also remember in studying this case (and this was brought up in the above Wiki article) that in hindsight, after alllllll the bitching that Sony did in the Betamax case
look how much they have profited from Betamax and VHS players and VHS and DVD movies!! Bastards!!
The "fair use" doctrine has also been invoked with regard to CDs and music, where one "personal" copy is permitted for personal use as was suggested in the examples of making a copy of a CD to put in your car as a cassette. The creation of a "love tape" shared with a boyfriend or girlfriend however, I believe,
actually violates copyright law because it is NOT "one copy for
personal use"!!
The "fair use" doctrine has actually been broadened in years since that Betamax case in situations involving dissemination of copyrighted work for non-profit, educational purposes.
The key in the "love tape" example above is the
distribution of the content. You have the right to make a single copy for personal use but you do not have the right to distribute, whether for "love" and for free (or for
FREE LOVE if that is what you were hoping for in using your "love tape" !!
) or for profit. You can make a copy of a movie for your own "personal use" but if you broadcast it or show the movie to a group of friends at a block party outside, even if for free, that is illegal!! I recall reading cases of lawsuits for copyright infringement where people were sued for showing a movie in their own home
!! but those cases did not succeed. However, if your "broadcast" the movie showing it
outside on a pulldown screen for a summer nights' party then THAT was illegal.
But the "love tape" scenario, albeit "illegal," is not the scenario that is sought to be controlled...it is the widespread distribution and facilitation of that distribution of the materials that is sought to be controlled. And Megaupload was arguably
the biggest distributor of said material and did so for
enormous profit.
As to the reasons for the legal existence of software licenses as "single use" and only licensed for installation on ONE computer as compared to the "fair use" doctrine applicable to making a copy of a music CD for personal use, I do not have an answer...that issue is post-law-school/practice for me and above my current pay grade!
So, that my two legal cents...probably not even worth
that much!
And by the way, my legal advice is free...free to use, free to distribute. Just know that you
assume the risk associated with the use of my
bullsh%$...um, I mean "advice"
)
