[mythtv-users] Best way to integrate a Netflix feed into Myth ?

[Eric Sharkey]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Brian J. Murrell <brian at interlinx.bc.ca> wrote:
> On 11-08-23 03:30 PM, Raymond Wagner wrote:
>>
>> There are two issues in play here.  First, DVDs are something that you
>> have purchased and own.
>
> AFAIU, DVDs are "licensed content" under the conditions of the license,
> which != own.

That's what the content industry wants you to think, but it just isn't
true.  Publishers have been trying to push this sort of thing for over
100 years (it was done first in books, I believe) where the author
tried to license away the right to resell used copies and the courts
have always thrown this out.  If you walk into a store and buy a
physical object, that's a sale.  Being the owner of a copy doesn't
make you the copyright owner, and you are still bound by the usual
limits of copyright, but the actual copyright owner has no ability to
add additional restrictions above and beyond what copyright law
allows.

>> Sure, there are users who rent content from Blockbuster or Netflix or
>> Redbox and illegally duplicate it, but they are rare.
>
> But you are talking about "intent" here, so I would submit that if I
> rent a DVD and just don't have time to watch it and rip it and then
> return it and then watch the rip and then delete it, my intent is pure.

This doesn't fly, though.  You need to consider the effect on the
copyright owner.

When an institution rents or lends copies of a work, it must own one
copy for each one being rented.  For popular works, it will need to
purchase many copies in order to simultaneously loan/rent enough
copies to satisfy demand.  The behavior above reduces pressure on the
copy owner to acquire a large number of copies of the work, and as
such this fails a fair use defense.

Eric