Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
To me, it's the same swamp, different trees. The Betamax decision affirmed the right to record and timeshift broadcast materials. Ok, if something is broadcast, and everybody has the right to make a recording of it, do I break the law by handing somebody else a copy of a broadcast? If I remembered to do it, and the other person forgot, why is passing it along illegal? What rights were waived by broadcasting copyright material in the first place? Some obviously, because of the Betamax decision.
I could go on at length, but I just want to point out that broadcast world doesn't have all the answers either.
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Yes, broadcast laws take some liberties, too. In the case you mentioned, your providing a copy of a program to someone else is illegal, strictly speaking... however, the authorities do not consider one transaction to be worth pursuing, so they let it go (like police allowing a driver to go 2 miles above the speed limit). When volume and significant sales dollars are involved, however, they will pursue and prosecute to the full extent of the law, and there is assuredly a legally-adopted guide level at which they consider appropriate to pursue and prosecute.
This is essentially the strategy the RIAA is using to pursue music swappers. (Not making a judgment, I'm just saying.)
But the fact is that broadcast has still worked out a lot of the problems we still debate here... adopting their guidelines would at least free us up to concentrate on the stickier issues.