Copying DVD for private use

H8GHOTI

What's the law with regards copying a DVD you own for private use or making a backup on to a hard drive? Is there anywhere that states the Irish stance on this?

I've done a search already and I seen 'fair usage' mentioned a few times. It's ok to make a backup as long as you don't remove the copy protection but this is not possible therefore illegal.

Most of what I found was from the US & wasn't that recent. Is there any specific law in Ireland?

ShakyJ

H8GHOTI wrote: »

What's the law with regards copying a DVD you own for private use or making a backup on to a hard drive? Is there anywhere that states the Irish stance on this?

I've done a search already and I seen 'fair usage' mentioned a few times. It's ok to make a backup as long as you don't remove the copy protection but this is not possible therefore illegal.

Most of what I found was from the US & wasn't that recent. Is there any specific law in Ireland?

I heard once u have the original dvd it is ok but not sure on that

johnny_ultimate

I'm fairly confident bypassing copy protection is illegal. That friendly disclaimer at the start contains all the info you need. And don't you dare show your DVD in a school or an oil rig.

Whether anyone would be bothered or indeed able to enforce it is, however, extremely unlikely.

But yes: technically illegal.

jaykhunter

i think it's legal to make ONE backup copy of a DVD for personal use. Although bypassing copy protection seems pretty illegal. But i reckon if (in the unlikely circumstance) that cops raided ur gaf, having backups of your DVDs wouldn't be an issue at all (as long as you had your DVDs still, lol)

mikhail

IANAL, but my understanding is that johnny_ultimate is correct: in this country, it is illegal to make even a personal back up a DVD. However, I don't think anyone's ever been prosecuted for it, putting it in that wonderful Irish legal category of 'ah, shure, it'll all work out in the end' along with cycling without a helmet and abortion where the mother's life is in danger.

fitz0

Yes, using DVDdecrypter to bypass copy protection and rip a DVD for backup is illegal and I wouldn't recommend doing it if you wish to stay inside the bounds of the law.

Myrddin

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I'm fairly confident bypassing copy protection is illegal

Correct.

Once content is digitally protected, its against the law to evade such protection. All the 'allowed to make one backup', 'make one to protect my original from sctraches' type arguments are not true unfortunately.

Voodu Child

The Act of 2000 is amended by substituting for section 87 the following:
Temporary acts of reproduction.
“(1) It is not an infringement of the rights conferred by this Part to undertake or conduct temporary acts of reproduction which acts are transient or incidental and which are an integral and essential part of a technological process and whose sole purpose is to enable -
(a) a transmission in a network between third parties by an intermediary, or
(b) a lawful use,
of a work or other subject-matter to be made, and which acts have no independent economic significance.
(2) Where a copy, which would otherwise be an infringing copy, is made under this section and is subsequently sold, rented or lent, or offered or exposed for sale, rental or loan, or otherwise made available to the public, it shall be deemed to be an infringing copy for those purposes and for all subsequent purposes.”.

Its all fairly badly written and contradictory.

Can I make a 'temporary copy' of a DVD in order to watch it from the convenience of my HTPC instead of getting the disc out of the box? Im watching it in my home so it is lawful use and it is of no economic significance since I already paid for the DVD.

Honestly i've no idea, maybe somebody with a legal background can clarify.

aidan_walsh

Section 1 appears to me to be referring to making a copy of a file in memory for use during playback or transmission (an argument that has apparently been made in the past in the US is that when playback occurs one copy on a machine becomes two copies as the device needs to load and/or buffer the original file for playback). It wouldn't refer to making a copy of a disc to play on a HTPC because that wouldn't be a necessary part of the process of watching.

Dman001

I believe the government is in the middle of implementing a Fair Use policy similar to the US for digital media. No harm either, seeing as it's still technically illegal to burn your CDs to your computer.

amacachi

Backing up is legal but what you have to do in order to back up is illegal.