Super 8 Film to avi

[buckethead]

I have several old super 8 films that I would like to send out to have transferred to a harddrive in avi format. These are commercially produced souvenir films which were purchased originally at Disneyland. Can a professional firm legally transfer these, or am I looking at a huge headache ?

[minidv2dvd]

that is a sticky one. the easy answer for the dub house is no they can't copy them because of the commercial copyright issue and you don't "own" the rights to them. BUT, you are entitled to a "fair use" backup. if it were sent to me to dupe, i would have to decline it.

[buckethead]

After contacting several transfer houses, that seems to be the consensus. I can certainly see their objections, so as not to invite legal action, but guldurnit !!

[2Bdecided]

Yet many places will copy LPs onto CD...!

[zoobie]

a smaller home studio will probably do it or you can rent what you need to DIY

[MOVIEGEEK]

Yet many places will copy LPs onto CD...!

That's true but the MPAA is strict about copying copyrighted film,if the film was made before 1964 then it's probably public domain.
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html

OP:I think your only option is to search eBay for a Super8 projector and do it yourself.

[buckethead]

Okay, what system(s) would give me the highest resolution transfer at a budget of less than a thousand bucks?
I'm looking at a Workprinter from moviestuff (possibly used) as a starting point. It looks as though pc operating system (I have one Vista and one 98 pc) and camera type (still or full motion) are considerations also.