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by aa0 4691 days ago
This article is great because it doesn't argue for piracy or against it. I do feel that it is missing a discussion about the colour of bits being amalgated by other bits. IE, if I buy a movie and then I torrent that same movie, is the torrented copy still illegal? Cloudy at best, I'd say.
2 comments
archangel_one 4691 days ago
Legally speaking, I believe it is not cloudy; it is still illegal because you have bought a copy of the movie, but you do not have the copyright of it so don't have the right to copy it (as the name suggests!).

Morally, I think most people probably feel that it is cloudy and in such a case often justifiable, but that has little bearing on the legal situation.

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ygra 4691 days ago
This depends a bit on the jurisdiction. In Germany for example we have a right to a Privatkopie (i.e. a personal copy of something we bought in case something happens to the original that renders it unusable). The problem is that this is trivial for CDs, books, and other non-DRMed media, but there is a conflict in case you have to break copy protection first which itself is illegal. Technically however, this is only legally pursued if you do that on a large scale and distribute the copies, so de facto you can still make copied for your own personal use.

For your right to a private copy there are numerous fees on devices that can make copies as well as media that can hold them, so we have to pay 17 ct per blank CD and something close to 10 € per DVD writer, etc. Basically you're paying for your allowed breach of copyright there, irregardless of what you actually use those things for.

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yk 4691 days ago
IANAL, but I believe that it is actually cloudy, since you have a license for the content and a copy of the file. ( Actually I believe it comes down to the precise wording of the license, the exact implementations of 'fair use' in whichever jurisdiction you are in, and probably if the distributor replaces a broken Dvd...)
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molf 4691 days ago
Downloading from a torrent won't be legal, because you'll also distribute the movie in the process.

Distributing copyrighted material is generally forbidden, even in countries where owning and creating private copies is allowed.

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