Pioneer 107 and DVD media questionv

[csean at poc.it]

on 01/02/2004 05:01, Power Macintosh G4 List at G4 at lists.themacintoshguy.com
wrote:

> If the DVD writer supports DVD-RW media, of course.
> 
>> Do they play okay on compatible home DVD players?
> 
> "Compatible" being the operative word. Most (by far) of current DVD
> players do not support DVD-RW media.

I couldn't find any info on my player's compatibility with DVD-RW. It's a
Bluesky. Plays DVD-R beautifully (even though it doesn't list DVD-R
compatibility in the specs).

> 
>> I've read that in OS X you cane use DVDBackup to copy a DVD video to
>> the
>> hard disc, then compress it to fit on a DVD-R/W using DVD2oneX, then
>> burn it
>> using Toast Titanium 5 (I don't have 6). Can anyone confirm that this
>> works?
> 
> In more than one country, the operation you describe is illegal.

I don't think it's illegal here, but the issue seems pretty irrelevant
anyway. What would be most worrying is that some authority might have so
little do with its time that it actually went sniffing around citizens'
homes in search of said copies. I for one would be looking for a tax rebate,
equivalent to the amount of tax money that went to pay said authority's
budget. But anyway...

On a different note, I certainly hope that replies were not withheld  out of
reluctance to comment upon what some might consider an "illegal operation"
in this or that country. I hope that the intelligent, informed people on
this list never drift into the shallow end of self censorship.
We might also keep in mind that in many countries it is illegal, or until
very recently was illegal, to be on a mailing list, to connect to the
Internet, to exchange email (or most other types of correspondence) with
private citizens of a long list of countries (including the USA, most
Western coutries, etc.). I don't think too many people on the list would
have warned, say, Chinese citizens lucky enough to get onto the list, to
refrain from posting because it was illegal.

> Laws vary from country from country.
> 
> In the US, issues the doctrine of fair use, DMCA, and DVD copying are
> still sub judice. Whether the doctrine of fair use allows copying of
> DVDs is -- IMHO -- highly debatable (see
> <http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html>). My (uninformed)
> suspicion is that the issue will eventually have to be settled by the
> Supreme Court. Until then, some degree of caution is due.
> 
> In other countries, it is perfectly legal -- see, for instance, a
> recent decision of an Oslo appeals court. But even there, the issue may
> still be taken to the Hogsterett. In Canada, on the other hand, the
> issue appears to be debatable. The Copyright Board ruled that making
> copies for one's own private use is legal (even when one hasn't
> purchased the original!), but a footnote says that this applies _only_
> to "sound recordings of musical works".

Might be a good idea to get your personal copies made ASAP, while the legal
aspects are still being ironed out.

I would also be interested in digitizing my aging VHS tapes, some of which
are already kaput and, to make matters worse, have never been issued in DVD.
I'd like to capture them thru a DV camera to hard disk, then burn them,
either in DVD-R or DVD-RW. Given the price of DVD-R (around 1 euro in bulk;
though even less in the US), I may just go with DVD-R anyway. As to fair
use, I'd also point out that I have bought 2 or 3 copies of some movies on
VHS, because the original cassette(s) became unreadable over time.

Just to repeat then: while the legal aspects are not yet finalized, I'd like
to make DVD-R or DVD-RW (or even DVD+R) copies of movies and television
series I have on DVD and VHS that I legally  purchased and legally own.

Chris