Copyright Legal Confusion
Ok. I thought about something the other day that sent my poor little mind into a whirlwind of confusion.
It basically involves Tivo.
How is Tivo legal?
It is illegal to download music, movies, and television shows from the Internet,
but it is perfectly legal to copy them onto a hard drive using Tivo.
Not only that, but Tivo now even lets you copy your favorite shows to your computer so you can watch them on the go.
If it is legal to use a VCR, why can we not download stuff from the Internet?
If it is legal to use Tivo, why can we not download stuff from the Internet?
If it is LEGAL to use Tivo to COPY copyrighted material to computers....
WHY can we NOT download stuff to our computers via another source?
Some people may argue that Tivo only lets you copy stuff you can receive via airwaves or paid cable/satellite, but this makes no sense to me...cause it is illegal to record radio broadcasts.
Don't get me wrong. I think Tivo is a great idea.
My question is actually WHY is it illegal to download television shows?
I am confused.
...Just some random ranting from me.
posted by Matt at 12:01 PM
2 Comments:
Ok, this is what I have gleaned from reading and my deductive reasoning thus, it may or may not be true.
Tivo works under the 'fair use' clause that dates back several years. I am unsure the exact case but thats where its legal. I believe that downloading a television show is technically legal, its the distribution of the television show is what is illegal. Also, the old tivo's had to be 'hacked' to get the videos off of them which, again, technically would be an infraction of the DMCA.
Now with the broadcast flag and stuff like that being presented to congress, they are trying to limit how you view television shows. Certain broadcasts could be flagged that you cannot even tivo the show to view at a later date.
This does not only lend itself to video, they are also introducing a measure for the so called "HD Radio" stuff where it will be flagged and cannot be recorded legally.
8:17 AM
If it is illegal to record radio broadcasts, then why does the CCrane company make a radio that records it?
12:57 PM
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