> Of course, the public cannot then copy and redistribute such > content - although it is difficult to understand what is and > isn't legal. Can someone record a BBC programme for later > viewing and then watch it in the company of their friends; or > even lend the video/dvd to their friends for them to view on > their own videos/dvds?
I'm not particularly sure of UK law in this regard - the most cited case is Sony vs Betamax, but that is of course US law not UK. I think there are great distinctions and gaps between the legality of the thing and the morality of it. Its not particularly amoral of me to give someone with a TV a recording they themselves could have made but forgot - but I suspect its probably illegal since that recording is no longer strictly for "personal" use. The main problem here is that theres no right or wrong, everybody can make a somewhat legitimate case dependent on their own particular priorities and understandings. At the end of the day though, the way television _seems_ to operate right now would appear to me to be ideal in that, whether consciously or not, a blind eye seems to be turned to the somewhat grey areas such as television show file sharing - everyone so far afaik has been prosecuted for movies or films. The argument that its not mainstream enough needs to be balanced against the huge volumes of legalese that are no doubt being kept in the darkest recesses of BBC filing cabinets. I'm sure it will shift over time, but it can't be overnight. Its not like we got from John Logie Baird *click* straight to Dr Who etc. overnight either. I understand that at that time, television was viewed by the radio people with much the same way as "new media" is viewed by most of the "old media" guys - an interesting distraction but not what the public really wants in the long term. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
