Burning DVDs

[Whitacre_Girl]

Here is a question I have been wondering about, I have a friend who does this, and I can’t help but wonder…LOL

Say you subscribe to a service such a netflix. You have the full access service, so you are paying to watch as many movies per month as you want both through the mail and on on-demand. Would it be immoral for a person to copy the DVDs of the movies they get through the mail, burn them on a DVD, and keep them in a library at home, thus saving the company postage and envelopes, so long as they continue to pay their monthly fee? Especially since this person could just order the movie again whenever they wanted.

What are your thoughts?

 

[SaltySirena]

All those DVDs are copy protected. Sinful or not, I don’t think someone could do it.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

Well, I’ve seen the library some people have collected, and all their copies work very well. The newer DVDs are copy protected, but most are not.

 

[SaltySirena]

Well, then, I would say, first, that some people can disable the copy protection. Of course, that is stealing.

Second, you RENT DVDs with the understanding that you have the right to posess it for only a limited amount of time. Once you send it back, you no longer have a right to use that content. Burning a copy and keeping it is violating that agreement. If you want your own copy, buy it. By doing otherwise, you are cheating the people who made that movie of the right to make profits on their intellectual property.

So, yeah, I think it’s stealing.

And yes, I know you could just order it again any time you wanted. Not the point. If you did that enough times, or enough people ordered that title, it would increase the demand for that title, thus causing Netflix to order another copy, thus compensating the makers of the movie. By burning your own copy, you frustrate that process as well. Again cheating them out of rightful profits.

ETA: It also violates the Netflix Terms of Use. From netflix.com/TermsOfUse?lnktrk=FTI_TOU#intelproperty :

***Intellectual Property

Copyright**

All content included on the Netflix Web site and delivered to members as part of the service, including DVDs, movies you can watch instantly, text, graphics, logos, designs, photographs, button icons, images, audio/video clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software, is the property of Netflix, Inc., or its suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws or other intellectual property laws and treaties. The compilation of all content on this site is the exclusive property of Netflix, Inc., and protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Content shall not be reproduced or used without express written permission from Netflix, Inc., or its suppliers. You agree not to decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble any software (including but not limited to the Netflix Movie Viewer Software) or other products or processes accessible through the Netflix website, not to insert any code or product or manipulate the content of the Netflix website in any way that affects the user’s experience, and not to use any data mining, data gathering or extraction method. Netflix reserves the right to terminate your membership hereunder if Netflix, in its sole and absolute discretion, believes that you are in violation of this paragraph, such violations including the copying of DVDs rented to you by us, the unauthorized use of our instant watching movie feature, the Netflix Movie Viewer Software or the copying or other unauthorized use of our proprietary content. Netflix does not promote, foster or condone the copying of DVDs or any other infringing activity. The use of the Netflix service, including DVDs rented to you by us is solely for your personal and non-commercial use. Please see the instructions at the end of these Terms of Use for notifying us of the presence of any allegedly infringing content on the Netflix website.*

 

[chaz0426]

Here is a question I have been wondering about, I have a friend who does this, and I can’t help but wonder…LOL

Say you subscribe to a service such a netflix. You have the full access service, so you are paying to watch as many movies per month as you want both through the mail and on on-demand. Would it be immoral for a person to copy the DVDs of the movies they get through the mail, burn them on a DVD, and keep them in a library at home, thus saving the company postage and envelopes, so long as they continue to pay their monthly fee? Especially since this person could just order the movie again whenever they wanted.

What are your thoughts?

Technically that is against copyright law because you didn’t buy it for the full price but for the rented price. I personally use blockbuster’s version of netflix and is a great option. I no longer pirate movies because of that and the monthly fee’s are sensible and you can swap your movies at a blockbuster for no cost! Talk about a smart business model.

But back to your question it is against copyright law to do that. Say if you bought the DVD and burned a copy of it for a backup that would be under “fair use” since you paid the full price of the product.