--- Forwarded Message from "David L. Wohr" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 13:36:29 -0400
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum               <[log in to unmask]>
>From: "David L. Wohr" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #5761.6 Legal issues regarding conversion of PAL video to NTSC (!)
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

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Just one more opinion.

I have read a lot of rationalizations for violating copyright law in this 
thread.

If nothing else, folks, just read the disclaimer at the beginning of almost 
all videos.  ANY copying, duplication or transfer of the material on the 
tape is a violation of the copyright without the express, written consent 
of the owner thereof.

Those who have talked to the attorneys on this matter have gotten this 
advise (at least from the lawyers who will put it on paper).

It doesn't matter if you archive the original, destroy it or throw it up 
into the air and have it disappear after you have copied it, you have still 
copied it without the permission of the copyright owner.

The really conservative attorneys will say that this holds true for 
digitizing any video information you don't own to put it onto a server so 
it can be streamed into a lab (even if you purchase a number of copies of 
the tape equal to the total number of possible simultaneous users).

Until there is some case law in this area, nothing will be certain.  May I 
have a show of hands from those who would like to be sued first. That is 
the only way we are going to get case law and an interpretation of the 
statutes. Does anybody recall what happened to NAPSTER just a few weeks ago?

Granted, I don't think that an educational institution will be sued for 
what we are all doing, because there is no profit motive involved and the 
number of individual items is small, even if you add all of us together, 
but the positive defenses are shaky at best.

The powers that make the copyright laws are still working several years, if 
not decades, behind the technology, and it will ever be thus. Until they 
catch up, nobody can really be sure. As has been noted before, we are 
working in a very grey area of the statutes for starters.

With all that said, what you do about it in a practical sense is between 
you and your God.

David

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David L. Wohr                           [log in to unmask]
Director
Language Laboratory                     voice   610.660.1837
Saint Joseph's University               fax     610.660.2160
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia, PA  19131-1395
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Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen,
Den schickt er in die weite Welt.
                        von Eichendorff