Legality Question using images of discs

[DrB0b]

Simple question made to appear more difficult.

Say you take MagicDisc or Daemon and mount an ISO you made of a older game/software you purchased. You have the game/software in hand but are tired of inserting it every time you want to use it. A simple reinstall and telling it to look at the virtual disc allows you to not have to keep the CD in your real drive at all times freeing it up for other endevours.

Is this technically illegal? I know now with DRM and the like this isn't a big issue anymore, but curious if this is violating the copyright laws. I know doing this and passing a copy on to a friend is illegal but that wouldn't be the end goal. Just curious if anyone knew the answer.
Thanks.

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[rmgates]

IF it was me, Id say its fine. But I also still play my old albums, copy them to tapes and give them to people

 

[Noway2]

I am not an expert in copyright law, but I am pretty sure that contrary to what the media companies would like you to believe that such an action would fall under fair use doctrine.

 

[vacunita]

At least in the U.S. it is legal. According to the resolution in Real Networks v. DVD CCA: Making backup copies of personally owned media is perfectly legal. Development and Distribution of software than allows breakage of the copy protection systems in certain media types is illegal, and caused Real Networks to loose that lawsuit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping

In your case, having an ISO image would constitute a backup and so it is legal.

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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[goombawaho]

Regardless of the letter of the law, on which I have no educated opinion, this is NOT something that companies are piping mad about and trying to get people into court for. They are worried about peer to peer, BitTorrent folks and China that are all pirating thousands of copies blatantly.

albums, copy them to tapes

What's an album? What's a tape? Kidding - I was there. Record companies used to think that this act was the big monster eating their profits. Little did they know that the CD and the internet would make taping look like a pimple on an elephant.

 

[vacunita]

Regardless of the letter of the law, on which I have no educated opinion, this is NOT something that companies are piping mad about and trying to get people into court for. They are worried about peer to peer, BitTorrent folks and China that are all pirating thousands of copies blatantly.

I could not agree more.

Its not like DVD companies are out there looking for people that are copying DVDs in their PCs at home.



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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[DrB0b]

I know there is a little bit of a grey area here as well as that being reinforced by the wiki article. Didn't think this was a big issue unless you get into distribution of said media, then that is a big no-no.

Thanks for the answers gents!

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[cdogg]

vacunita,
The ruling in Real Networks v. DVD CCA was not in favor of DVD-Copying tools. The problem isn't the backup copy. That's allowed by "fair use" under U.S. copyright law. However, circumventing copy protection isn't and violates the DMCA. Nice little legal catch-22. So far, I haven't seen a case that ruled it was OK to violate the DMCA in order to exercise your fair use rights.

Having said that though, I'm with goombawaho. No one's going to come knocking at your door unless you're sharing copied media.


-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

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[vacunita]

The ruling in Real Networks v. DVD CCA was not in favor of DVD-Copying tools. The problem isn't the backup copy. That's allowed by "fair use" under U.S. copyright law. However, circumventing copy protection isn't and violates the DMCA. Nice little legal catch-22. So far, I haven't seen a case that ruled it was OK to violate the DMCA in order to exercise your fair use rights.

I never said it was. I clearly said Real Networks Lost that lawsuit. They are the ones making the copy breaking software. The software that enables the breakage or circumvention of the copy protection is illegal so making a copy using that is illegal.

Owning a backup copy of your media is not. How you obtained that copy is a different matter all together.



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

5.15am somewhere in the depths of suburbia.

BANG, BANG, BANG........BOOM!

"FREEZE NOBODY MOVE!!!! FBI!!!

"Huh? whats this?"

"We have intel you have pirate software."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You use magicISO to mount images of games!"

"You mean the ones here I like to keep a good copy of my original and backup to a ISO...."

"Let me see that! Hmmmmm. Right, erm, OK, sorry about that, you can go back to sleep now."

"What about the door you just knocked down?"

"Not my problem son. Have a nice day."

I think if you can lay your hands on your original copies, I dont think they will drag you away. However, there could be an argument, that software vendors should offer say a service to supply two discs. One for day to day use if needed and one to store away as a "backup" then the people with legit reasons dont have to deal with dawn raids.

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[goombawaho]

Not drag you away". Especially since I've seen dudes, whose computer I have serviced, have stacks of 200 pirated DVD movies in their room and have previously received piracy "cease and desist" notification letters from their ISP.

That type of letter would scare me straight, but not some folks.

So is DrB0b less concerned now?

 

[DrB0b]

Wasn't so much concerned as curious, but thanks for all the info and interesting story. Gotta love a little lighthearted humor every now and again.

From what I gather, and I believe someone touched on this, that the FCC/RIAA/other agencies are more in tune to go after seeders than leechers(sp?) of pirated copies. Not to angle this towards a piracy thread as there are a couple good ones in STC, but from what Ive seen, the casual downloader is almost free from worry unless you are seeding or uploading a lot of data to an FTP site/server or receive 3ish Cease and Desist letters from your ISP. Even then, the most common thing for an ISP to do is cut off service or suspend it.

Sidenote: I didnt know the FCC/RIAA had their collective panties bunched over creating mixed tapes. That was the sign of true love back in my early days....

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[cdogg]

I never said it was. I clearly said Real Networks Lost that lawsuit.

Indeed you did. Somehow I missed that!
I need a vacation apparently.

 

[Sympology]

Just to clarify:

In the UK it would be illegal to copy the disks, although moves are under way to make it more like the US. However as always, they give with one hand and slice of the other and stick it through a mincer.

Apparently pirate DVD's are ruining the Movie industry*. So clearly record box office taking for this year must be a miragae.

/off topic
* I don't endorse piracy, but when we throw more resources at it, than we do eradicating third world poverty, the arms trade and general human misery, one has to question our priorities.

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