DVD Copyright Law
Any creative, original work recorded to DVD can get copyright protection. Copyright protection and enforcement for DVDs focuses primarily on unauthorized, or pirated, copying. While individual consumers may legally make DVD copies for personal use, unauthorized copying for distribution constitutes copyright infringement even if the infringing copier doesn't make money from distributing copies.
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Copyright Basics
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The U.S. Copyright Act protects "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression," including films and media on DVD. Copyright owners have the exclusive right to copy, distribute, display and make derivatives of original works on DVD. Derivatives include sequels, prequels, character spin-offs and any series based on an original work.
Registering DVD Copyrights
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The U.S. Copyright Office gives its full protection to registered works. While copyright protection exists automatically, only owners of original works registered for copyright can file infringement claims in U.S. Courts. Registration also creates a public record establishing the creation date for the original work. Copyrights can be filed online with the U.S. Copyright Office for a small fee.
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CSS Technology
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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other content owners typically embed DVDs with Content Scramble System (CSS) technology that prevent user copying. In litigation to protect CSS technology, the MPAA emphasized that CSS exists "in order to provide security to the copyrighted contents of DVDs and thereby provide protection for the copyrighted content against unauthorized copying."
Anti-Circumvention
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In 1998, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) outlawed user attempts to circumvent CSS technology. The anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA created controversy over user rights, fair use, technological advancements and other intellectual property issues that continue to crop up in federal courts as late as 2010.
Fair Use and DeCSS
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Havard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society claims that the "inflexible controls of CSS prevent people who have legitimately purchased disks in DVD format from making full use of those works." The Berkman Center believes that users who purchase DVDs have the right to copy those DVDs for personal use. To that end, the Berman Center provides user access to DeCSS, a technlogy that can decrypt CSS on DVDs.
Warning
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Fair use and the legality of anti-circumvention routinely crops up in U.S. courts because each instance of fair use must be determined on a case-by-case basis. Use DeCSS and other decryption technology at your own risk---many people who shared DeCSS technology in the past found themselves in court with the MPAA and other powerful content owners. Copyright infringement carries heavy penalties.
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References
Resources
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