Quote:
Originally Posted by ratinox
Well... yes. Maybe. In the US anyway. Audio recordings are explicitly covered by the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) of 1992. There is no equivalent law for video recordings so we have to rely on interpretations of fair use doctrine for video.
And there's this: per FCC regulations, American citizens can legally receive and record any legally broadcast signal, and we can do pretty much whatever we want with those recordings for personal use. We cannot redistribute without permission from the copyright holders but otherwise it's fair game. But this only covers aerial broadcasts. Wire line transmissions like cable TV are not covered.
But! the DMCA screws us because digital music and video services encrypt their signals so while we're entitled to receive and record, we're prohibited from "unauthorized" decryption.
But! the DMCA also (allegedly) protects us. It's what makes Stingray devices illegal without court orders because cellular phone signals are encrypted.
TL;DR: don't treat anything discussed here as legal advice or anything vaguely comprehensive regarding the complexities of even one nation's copyright laws.
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Yeah, things get messy. Glad I live in Canada; things are a (tiny bit) less messy here.