What it comes to backing up media, what's legal in Ireland?

Tombi!

I always thought that you can make one back up of a CD/DVD/Game etc and it's allowed. If the original is no longer in your possession, you can't use the back up.

if that's true: is it legal for me to back up a DVD and use the backup on my computer/Xbox/whatever and if so, does it have to be in the same format as the DVD? So I couldn't change the file type from whatever DVDs use to MP4?

As for video games (PC only talking BTW): Am I allowed to make a back up from the disc but it's completely digital? As in it's a format that is loaded just like a disc on my computer bit it's a file on my computer (in this case, an ISO file)?

Note that these are for me using them, not for loaning them or anything.

Mike 1972

Lot of misconceptions floating around based on what people have read in UK or US publications. As far as In aware one can do what the copyright holder allows (which often amounts to very little) the only fair use provisions in Irish law apply to educatuonal institutuons and places of worship IIRC.

Not even sure if timeshifting tv/radio broadcasts is technically legal in Ireland.

In practice copyright law is almost universally ignored of course.

IRLConor

For computer programs, there's some provision for backups. See Section 80 of the Copyright Act. (Beware, it may have been amended)

For music/movies there is no such provision that I know of.

Tombi!

So in some game manuals there's the EULA agreement which states that you (the owner of the game) can't sell/loan it out. So would it be breaking the law by selling games to Gamestop (or HMV or whatever) or giving it to a friend to play for a while?

Victor

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

So in some game manuals there's the EULA agreement which states that you (the owner of the game) can't sell/loan it out.

You may have misread that.

Banning re-sale, without good reason, would likely be an unreasonable term and would be struck down. You may be stuck though when the game is linked to an account as opposed to a disk.

Typically, with a retail copy, you can't rent it out, but you can loan it or give it away (but it must only be on one computer at a time). Xtravision and the like would have had rental copies, not retail ones.

hullaballoo

A lot of what's contained in copyright notices is rubbish for enforceability reasons rather than legal ones. If I go over to my mate with a game or DVD and he gives me a fiver for it, who knows about it? How could they prove I ever owned it in the first place?

Technically, take-a-book, leave-a-book is licence infringement in a lot of cases, but how would anyone enforce that?

Victor

hullaballoo wrote: »

Technically, take-a-book, leave-a-book is licence infringement in a lot of cases, but how would anyone enforce that?

Traditionally, publishers merely insisted that books not be sold, lent, etc. without the cover. With cheap books, the retailer / wholesaler would simply rip off the cover (much like the shop staff cutting bar codes off newspapers until recently) and return them to obtain credit for unsold / unsellable books.

However, these days books tend to be returned and stockpiled, sold on the internet or pulped by the publisher, not by the retailer / wholesaler.

hfallada

When the apple iPod first came out, Wasnt it piracy to buy a CD and put it on the iPod?

All laws relating to IP in Ireland are fairly far behind other countries and are rarely enforced eg you can buy fake what ever you want on the streets around Henry street from cigarettes, hand bags to perfumes.

Mike 1972

hfallada wrote: »

When the apple iPod first came out, Wasnt it piracy to buy a CD and put it on the iPod?s.

Yes just like back in the day it was technically illegal to put ones own LP records on tape for use in the car (or as backup). The recording industry reportedly gave an (unwritten) concession on this point a few years ago although whether it applies to legacy recordings (bought prior) is unclear. The old regieme was completely unenforcable and widely ignored anyway.