Question about legality of copying videos...

[Brent212]

I hope this doesn't violate the rules on the message board, but I was wondering what the law would say about the following (theoretical) situation:

If a company put out a video on VHS and then went out of business, is it illegal to sell DVD copies of that VHS?

The reason I ask is that I'm an avid collector of skateboard videos, and there are many "classics" that aren't available anymore, but can sometimes be found on places like ebay, mostly in DVD form, even though they were never released on DVD. Everyone is pretty stoked about this, as the videos are pretty impossible to find in their original format, and the constant quality attribute of a digital format is favorable. So it seems like no one really gets hurt by this distribution, since most of the companies are either no longer in business or no longer producing the videos being sold on ebay. The best thing about this is that it makes more people have access to these hard-to-find videos.

Now I'm pretty sure doing this is illegal if the company's in business, since the copyright is probably still valid and everything, and it seems like there's a pretty good chance they would care. But if a company is no longer around, is the copyright still in affect? If it is illegal to sell copies of a video by a company that's history, who would have to take action to get the seller in trouble?

I've seen many sellers on ebay who seem to make a business out of this, and I'm just curious if they are free to do this legally, or if they're just falling below the radar screen.

[gitreel]

Yes,

It is still illegal because it is copyrighted and you are not allowed to profit from it.

The proceeds are supposed to go to the creator.

[gshelley61]

Illegal - unless they have obtained written permission (a license) from the copyright holder to duplicate and distribute.

[Brent212]

Don't copyrights expire after a certain amount of time? I remember asking someone this question, and they said something like if the company has been out of business for long enough the copyright will have expired and it's not illegal.

[d_unbeliever]

ILLEGAL!!!

it's not drugs anyway that destroy your brain cells and make you do evil things!

Kill the DRUGLORDS!!! and let the pirates alone! (as long as they make clear copy, if they make lousy copy then KILL them also) :P

[Rookie64]

4 common ways that works arrive in the public domain:

1 - expiration of copyright...the copyright has expired.

2 - failure to renew copyright...the owner failed to follow copyright renewal rules.

3 - dedication...the owner deliberately places it in the public domain.

4 - no copyright protection available...copyright law does not protect this type of work.


Expired Copyright - all works published in the U.S. before 1923


Renewal Trapdoor - thousands of works published in the U.S. before 1964 fell into the public domain because the copyright was not renewed under the law in effect at that time. If a work was first published before 1964, the owner had to file a renewal with the Copyright Office during the 28th year after publication. No renewal meant loss of copyright.

Research the records of the Copyright Office to find out if a renewal was filed.

[housepig]

I'm guessing most of these are early 80's, in that case you have another 50 or so years before they become public domain... if in fact Congress doesn't extend copyrights again....

if the company that made the videos still exists, contact them - they might be willing to license the material to you. if they don't exist, see if you can find out when they went out of business, and if anyone bought the assets of the company - if someone did, they might be willing to assign or sell you the rights.

[Capmaster]

I hope this doesn't violate the rules on the message board, but I was wondering what the law would say about the following (theoretical) situation:

Nope. No harm in asking "What if" regarding the legality of warez. As long as you don't post questions or other information that indicates that it is your intent to utilize warez in any way, you're OK on that subject

[gshelley61]

US Copyright Terms in a convenient grid format:

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/copyrightterm.pdf

[ZAPPER]

WOW That was the best link to copright info that I have seen! I will have to go back to school to understand it though. If more people saw this table and all its quirks, there would be alot less post about trying to skirt around it. Cool link.