Laws on capturing / distributing

[rh71]

Say I like to record/capture vids of every appearance celebrityA appears on network TV and distribute to various fan sites (not for profit, of course).

Is this somehow illegal / frowned upon / etc. ?

[BobK]

Yes.

[rh71]

Illegal ? What part of what law am I breaking ? These are only small clips of shows... please elaborate.

[Gazorgan]

Not legal in the US.

About the only thing you can distibute in the US is:

1) Stuff you shot yourself. However, this needs a disclaimer in it saying it's okay. You also have content issues (you can't distribute shots of kids playing on a playground, for obvious sicko reasons).
2) Public Domain videos that grant you the right to distribute them. These are invariably 1960's style Black&White education videos.
3) Performances that explicitly allow you to record and distribute them(not for any $$$, even to cover costs). These woudl be Grateful Dead/Ecoustic Hookah concerts, openly public displays like the 4th of july fireworks show.
4) Stuf you created yourself. This would be CGI or other graphics (the dancing baby), assuming the software grants you the rights of re-distribution of the final product.


So, in the US, it's illegal to distribute any movie or TV show, anything from a sattellite feed, or generally anything you watch on TV. It's not neccassarily illegal to make it for personal use (time shifting TV shows as an example), you just can't share it. Same apllies to Audio only content as well.

[rh71]

Thanks for that explanation. Does it apply to small parts of shows not in its entirety ? Say I want to show someone a funny clip so I cap it..

[daRev]

If all you want to do is post a short clip from a program you can legally do so as long as you include a review of the clip. This would allow the post to fall into Fair Use. You may be asked to pull the clip/review by the owner, but they won't have a legal leg to stand on.

daRev

[vhelp]

@ daRev,

Elaborate some more on "review" please :P

If wanted to show a short clip of Friends, where Monica slips off the sidewalk,
in order to make it legal enough for "fair use", I would have to give a brief
reivew ??

Can you give us an example of such, using my Friends for instance

-vhelp

[lordsmurf]

Say I like to record/capture vids of every appearance celebrityA appears on network TV and distribute to various fan sites (not for profit, of course).

Is this somehow illegal / frowned upon / etc. ?

I'd think excerpts would fall under fair use.