[mythtv-users] MythTV vs. Windows Media Center

[Gabe Rubin]

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 12:32 PM, Ben Kamen <bkamen at benjammin.net> wrote:
> On 2/10/2011 1:43 PM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
>>
>> This surprises me.  TiVo's support for what it calls "Multiroom
>> Viewing" and "TiVo To Go" are not compatible with copy-once content.
>>
>>  http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=451107
>
> For the stuff that is "Copy Never" -- I remember reading a bunch about Fair
> Use concerning the RIAA Lawsuits and in the process a bunch about how it
> related to Video and the "Broadcast Flag" (thus thus whole road for the
> pcHDTV cards and so forth) pushing the building of one's own Copy-Proof
> DVR..
>
> The "copy never" seems to fly in the well defined Fair Use that says a
> viewer is legally allowed to record a baseball game
> strictly for viewing in his home for non-commercial purposes. Am I not
> remembering this right or have the laws been
> change further against fair use?
>
>  -Ben

For what its worth (and this is not legal advice), the broadcasters
don't have an obligation to allow you to exercise fair use of a
copyrighted work.  All the fair use doctrine really does is give you a
legal defense if you are making an unauthorized copy.  And then it is
a very fact-specific inquiry about whether it is fair use or not.

Sure, the "copy never" flies in the face of fair use (i.e., how can
you make a copy to exercise your fair use rights for parody,
education, time-shifting, etc without being able to copy), but that
doesn't make it illegal or wrong to put in a technological measure to
prevent copying.  And in fact, circumventing that "copy never" flag
could be a violation of the DMCA.