Protct fair use

[nbastin at mac.com]

On Friday, December 20, 2002, at 07:51 PM, John Oliver wrote:

> http://www.protectfairuse.org/

Not to start another long thread, but I probably will...  Somebody's 
going to have to do a lot of talking to establish that the fair use 
provisions of copyright law allow you to make backup copies of 
copyrighted media.  Sec 106(1) of Title 17 is very clear that the owner 
of the copyright has the exclusive right ' to reproduce the copyrighted 
work in copies or phonorecords', and that right does not belong to 
anyone else unless so authorized by the copyright holder.  Sec 107 
allows that 'reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other 
means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, 
comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for 
classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of 
copyright', but backups aren't covered by any of those categories.  The 
Home Recording Act covered the status of backups, but it doesn't apply 
to DVDs, and a court would likely feel that congress should change the 
law, as it does not lie with the judiciary to extend legislation, but 
merely to interpret it, and the text is fairly explicit in what types 
of recordings it allows.

Either way, DVD copying most certainly isn't covered by fair use, so I 
find this site somewhat misleading.  If they want congress to extend 
the Home Recording Act, that's fine, but they should say that, rather 
than argue that copying DVDs is protected by fair use, misleading 
people that copying DVDs is a right they already have and should try to 
protect, where it is in fact a right they don't have at the moment.

--
Nick