Is capturing a non-copyrighted bluray off of a bluray player illegal

[ezcapper]

Don't ask me why, I know there are better ways of doing it. But is capturing a non copyrighted bluray disc (Valkamma) through hdmi off of a bluray player (non computer) legal or illegal. I want to do this but only if it is legal.

[Kerry56]

Copyright is not a simple subject, and copyright laws are not the same in every country. In most countries (those who follow the Berne Convention standards) copyright applies to any creative work of art automatically, and does not have to be registered with any governmental agency. So it is difficult to say for certain that copyright restrictions do not apply. Has the content fallen out of copyright protection and is now in the public domain?

If you own the disc, most of us around here believe you have a fair rights use of the disc, which allows a backup. This is countered by the need to break encryption in most cases, which is specifically prohibited in most countries.

If you want to copy by HDMI, you'll need a splitter that ignores HDCP, and devices like this are also prohibited by law. They exist however, and are not all that hard to find.

So, what you are proposing is probably not strictly legal. Or it might be deemed legal, fair use in a court case. But fair use is determined on a case by case basis, and is hard to predict.

[Kerry56]

After Googling Valkamma, it seems it is an open source project licensed under Creative Commons, and is therefore available for anyone to copy. So, feel free to copy it as you wish.

There are better, easier ways than using HDMI, as you've noted. Those other ways are MUCH easier.

[El Heggunte]

In most countries (those who follow the Berne Convention standards) copyright applies to any creative work of art automatically, and does not have to be registered with any governmental agency.

I.A.N.A.L., and so I may be wrong in this case, but one must register their copyrighted stuff,
IF they seriously intend to sue anyone for copyright infringement.

IMNSHO: the "everyone has automagic copyrights" boolsheet was invented
only in order to make Mr. Joe Average feel as if he is...
"as important as the big dogs"

</ end of O.T.>

[Cornucopia]

IANAL, either, but I do know quite clearly that, in the US at least, it states in the Copyright Office that copyright automatically is awarded upon creation, whether it is registered or not. Registration is helpful in the establishment of the TIME of creation, and in the establishment of ownership apportionment (particularly WRT multiple creators).
And, yes, I'm sure it does further solidify the owners' claims, but claims have already been affirmed in US court on "non-registered" copyrighted works.

**************

Yes, the BEST way to make a Blu-ray backup is to RIP it (but not re-encode). Faster, No Loss, Keeps integrity of the original authoring (incl. extra streams, menus, chapters, branching, stills...)

Scott

[ezcapper]

I should have phrased this better. I need an answer from someone who knows the law well. Is it illegal to capture open-source movies (ex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_films) from my blu ray player via a capture card off of amazon. Not using a splitter.

I don't care about the best way, I'm interested in the legality of it in the United States. I can't figure it out by looking through google.

[johns0]

If it's open source but part of a paid streaming service then there might be issues with the steamer(amazon) as to the legality,talk to amazon if you are allowed to capture it,as someone else stated there are much better ways as in getting the original download of the movie through legal sites.

[Kerry56]

Take a look at the Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

Here is the important section for your concerns:
3. License Grant. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below:

to Reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collections, and to Reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collections;



This grants you the right to copy the movie Valkamma for your own use. There are some restrictions, but most of those deal with distribution and public performances. Even those are allowed with proper attribution. But you need to confirm the type of license that each of these open source films use. They may not all allow copies to be made...you'll have to make certain of that for each one.

If the open source films have no HDCP encryption, and I see no reason why they should, then your plan to copy them with a capture card should work ok. But its still not the best or fastest method, not even close. I'm assuming you are copying from discs.

[LMotlow]

I should have phrased this better. I need an answer from someone who knows the law well. Is it illegal to capture open-source movies (ex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_films) from my blu ray player via a capture card off of amazon. Not using a splitter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_film :

A definition of an open-source film is based on the OSI's open-source software definition[1] and the definition of free cultural licenses[2]. This definition can be applied to films where:

1. The license of the movie is approved for free cultural works. Specifically this is true for the Creative Commons licenses by and by-sa.
2. The materials used in the movie (sources) are also available under a license which is approved for free cultural works.
3. The movie and its sources are made publicly available via an online download or by other means that are either free or with a cost that covers reasonable reproduction expenses only.
4. The sources should be viewable and editable with free/open-source software. If this is not the case, they must be convertible into such a format by using free/open-source software. The same applies to the movie itself.
5. It should be possible to re-create or re-assemble the movie using the source materials.

Films or film projects which do not meet these criteria are either not open source or partially open source.

The copyright hassle might be vague, but your statement here seems obvious:

I don't care about the best way

Besides involving quality loss, re-recording BluRay source is an unnecessary pain in the neck. But, then, quality is getting to be an undesirable commodity these days. Might we ask, why don't you just rip it to your PC? Then do whatever you want to screw it up later. You can even reduce the size from umpteen gigabytes to something small enough to fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk if you like. What's with the capture card ?

[ezcapper]

Take a look at the Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

Here is the important section for your concerns:
3. License Grant. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below:

to Reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collections, and to Reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collections;



This grants you the right to copy the movie Valkamma for your own use. There are some restrictions, but most of those deal with distribution and public performances. Even those are allowed with proper attribution. But you need to confirm the type of license that each of these open source films use. They may not all allow copies to made...you'll have to make certain of that for each one.

If the open source films have no HDCP encryption, and I see no reason why they should, then your plan to copy them with a capture card should work ok. But its still not the best or fastest method, not even close. I'm assuming you are copying from discs.

I would be capturing from the disk. I'm not interested on the movie maker side, I would only copy movies that are licensed to allow legal copying. I'm interested on the hardware side. Is it illegal to copy from the player. Sorry for not being clearer and thanks for the reply!

[jagabo]

I need an answer from someone who knows the law well.

Then you should talk to a copyright lawyer.

[Kerry56]

With material that has a license allowing copying, it is legal for you to capture that material from the player. Yes.

It really does depend on the license that the movie is released under.

And as jagabo points out, if you still have concerns, you really should consult a lawyer rather than relying on our word. I very much suspect he/she will tell you the same thing, but their job is to know this subject well enough to stand up in court.

[jagabo]

Aren't all commercial Blu-ray discs AACS encrypted? You may have the right to duplicate the video but by the DMCA you don't have the right to decrypt the content of the disc. Since the disc is AACS encrypted the Blu-ray player will output with HDCP encryption. Again, according to the DMCA you don't have the right to bypass that encryption. I think even a copyright lawyer will tell you the situation is not clear.

[johns0]

I think no one really cares if you back up your own disc by what ever method you want to use,the real issue is if you d/l movies illegally or provide uploaded copies of your backups and give/sell to others.