Joint ownership of Media

[danioj]

I was having an interesting discussion with a friend at work today. We were actually talking about a Footballer called Carlos Tevez (that European Football or Soccer  ). We were discussion the "ownership" rights to him as a "Player" wth respect to being "sold" between clubs. We know from the Media that Clubs and Agents and Often "Third parties" often have a % stake in a player, for example:

 

Playing Club 30%

Agent 20%

Developer Club 10%

Third Party 40%

 

This means that not only do all parties have to agree on a sale, fee and conditions for the player BUT the financial split would be according (AFAIK) to the % ownership.

 

Then we started talking about other things that could be jointly owned. Let's say 2 people decide to pool their money and buy Supernatural Season 1 for $20. They put in $10 each and they agree to share the time with the media between them. Each of them decides to Backup their media (which they "own" and is LEGAL). Where is the problem? Multiple organisations and people can own People can "own" can't the same apply to other things?

 

We work on an isolated site with no City, Town or Cafe's. Lunches get boring so we invent our own fun. We just found it interesting!

[Squid]

No idea about Australia, but in Canada it's perfectly legal for multiple parties to jointly own a DVD or BD.  However it is not ever legal for persons to ever create a backup for their own personal use unless the media itself is unencrypted (basically only CD's).  Bypassing the AACS or CSS in order to create a backup of a BD / DVD is disallowed.

[JonathanM]

I think there is some confusion over the term "own". While you may technically own the plastic and acrylic, the specific arrangement of bits on it are protected by copyright, which you have a license to use only as the law allows. Creative works don't suddenly become your property just because you bought a DVD.

[garycase]

I think there is some confusion over the term "own". While you may technically own the plastic and acrylic, the specific arrangement of bits on it are protected by copyright, which you have a license to use only as the law allows. Creative works don't suddenly become your property just because you bought a DVD.

 

Agree.    Note that the US situation is interesting -- it's technically legal to make backup copies of your media under the "Fair Use" act;  but it's NOT legal to sell software that bypasses the protection on DVDs ... so you can't legally buy the software that enables you to rip the movies.    Such software is, of course, widely available on the internet, sold from other countries (or even free in some cases).    And I suspect many folks both have it and use it      Most folks probably feel like they're doing nothing wrong to backup their DVDs so their kids don't destroy the Toy Story DVD when they play it for the 123rd time ... and as long as they're not passing out copies I suspect it's unlikely they'll get in any trouble.

 

 

 

[InlineRanger]

I think there is some confusion over the term "own". While you may technically own the plastic and acrylic, the specific arrangement of bits on it are protected by copyright, which you have a license to use only as the law allows. Creative works don't suddenly become your property just because you bought a DVD.

 

Technically he can own it in 95 years when the copyright expires.

 

We've waited over a half-century after Walt's death, but it's almost here! Steamboat Willie will finally enter the public domain in 2023.^{Just kidding!}

[De1taE1even]

Note that the US situation is interesting -- it's technically legal to make backup copies of your media under the "Fair Use" act;

 

Well... Kind-of.  Last I researched, it is legal to own a backup copy of your media, as long as it is "unaltered".  Basically, if you have a legal and licensed version of Burning software, that makes an exact copy of the original media, then you're in the clear.  Any alteration of the original media (such as removing encryption and/or H.264 encoding it), does not fall within the bounds of the Fair Use Act, and is still considered illegal.

 

Realistically, you're exactly right in that no one is going to put up a fuss because you store a copy of a movie that you paid for on a hard drive, as long as you aren't selling (or giving) copies of it to other people.  Similar to torrenting, it's almost always the seeders that get cracked down on, not the downloaders.  They're both illegal, but Hollywood cares much more about distribution than consumption.

[garycase]

... Last I researched, it is legal to own a backup copy of your media, as long as it is "unaltered".  Basically, if you have a legal and licensed version of Burning software, that makes an exact copy of the original media, then you're in the clear.

 

Even that's not technically legal => Note that Kaleidescape is still in court after having lost the last round, even though they preserve all of the protections on the media and even add another layer of their own.    Given the cost of their system, I doubt the producers will be overly aggressive at shutting them down [A nice Kaleidescape setup costs well over $10k] ... but when they designed the system they were very careful to completely preserve all protections on the media -- and STILL got sued.

 

[De1taE1even]

 

Even that's not technically legal => Note that Kaleidescape is still in court after having lost the last round, even though they preserve all of the protections on the media and even add another layer of their own.    Given the cost of their system, I doubt the producers will be overly aggressive at shutting them down [A nice Kaleidescape setup costs well over $10k] ... but when they designed the system they were very careful to completely preserve all protections on the media -- and STILL got sued.

 

Wow, that's pretty bad.  I was talking from a consumer standpoint about it being legal to have an exact replica of your media, but I would have thought that it also applied to the software developers.  I guess not!

[jonp]

... Last I researched, it is legal to own a backup copy of your media, as long as it is "unaltered".  Basically, if you have a legal and licensed version of Burning software, that makes an exact copy of the original media, then you're in the clear.

 

Even that's not technically legal => Note that Kaleidescape is still in court after having lost the last round, even though they preserve all of the protections on the media and even add another layer of their own.    Given the cost of their system, I doubt the producers will be overly aggressive at shutting them down [A nice Kaleidescape setup costs well over $10k] ... but when they designed the system they were very careful to completely preserve all protections on the media -- and STILL got sued.

 

Yup, but the EU (I believe in 2014) passed a law that now makes it legal to backup your own media content.  Hopefully the US will catch up on this.