Copyright law - making copies for personal use [LWN.net]

Copyright law - making copies for personal use

Posted Nov 15, 2020 5:05 UTC (Sun) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: Copyright law by ldearquer
Parent article: The RIAA, GitHub, and youtube-dl

No, you cannot legally make a copy of a TV broadcast under US copyright law, even for personal use.

The "fair use" exception for making copies for personal use is for making an additional copy of something of which you already own a copy. It doesn't cover creating a copy from a public performance. (It wouldn't cover making a copy of a friend's DVD for your own personal use either).

A famous court case shortly after the invention of the home video recorder tested the limits of that restriction and resulted in a ruling that you can't record a TV program even if you're just going to watch it once the next day and then delete the copy.

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Copyright law - making copies for personal use

Posted Nov 15, 2020 5:48 UTC (Sun) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (1 responses)

> No, you cannot legally make a copy of a TV broadcast under US copyright law, even for personal use.
You absolutely can. Time-shifting was ruled legal by the SCOTUS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_shifting#History_in_th...

Copyright law - making copies for personal use

Posted Nov 15, 2020 17:32 UTC (Sun) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]

I stand corrected, and thank you for the correction.

You know, I read that Wikipedia article just before posting and between then and when I hit publish, I forgot the result of the case.

Good thing it does not disturb my main point, since the only reason that case went to the Supreme Court is that recording TV broadcasts generally isn't allowed.