Are Free Over the Air Digital TV Broadcasts Copy Protected?
Free, over-the-air digital TV broadcast signals are currently not encrypted with copy protection encoding. This, however, does not mean that copyright rules do not apply to this type of broadcast content.
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Background
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"Copy protection" and "copyrights" are not interchangeable terms. "Copy protection" refers to the technological standards used to make producing high quality copies of digital content difficult. "Copyrights" refers to the federal laws which give the owner of a creative work the exclusive right to determine who may publish their work. Copy protection is meant to help prevent pirating, thereby protecting an owner's copyrights.
Fair Use
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As the viewer, you have the right to record the content broadcast by the free over-the-air TV broadcasters which serve your local area. You may record this content to have a copy of the TV programming for your own private collection; this is called "fair use." In performig these recordings you do not have to account for copy protection encryption, because there isn't any. Bear in mind, however, that even though there is no copy protection encryption to make producing copies difficult, it's illegal to commercially redistribute your recording of the broadcast without authorized consent.
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Considerations
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The laws and standards regarding digital copy protection are not set in stone. While free over-the-air local TV broadcasts are currently transmitted without encryption, this may not always be the case. The idea of constructing a mandated copy protection standard for digital TV has been explored by both the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) and interested media parties.
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