Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (
More info?)
"PTRAVEL" <ptravel88-usenet@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2md08lFlud9qU1@uni-berlin.de...
>
> Okay, I was a little to terse. Saving a broadcast show to a recordable
> medium is copyright infringement, but probably considered fair use
pursuant
> to Sony v. Universal. Sony v. Universal dealt only with time-shifting
using
> VCRs.
>
> Fair use is a defense to infringement, meaning that, while the act itself
> constitutes infringement, it is, nonetheless, not sanctioned. This is not
> the same thing as saying that acts subject to the fair use defense are
> legal. However, the OP wasn't talking merely about time-shifting, or even
> merely recording a show, but of editing out commercials. This constitutes
> preparation of a derivative work, which is a separate and distinct
reserved
> right from the right to prepare copies. Nothing in Sony, nor in fair use
> doctrine generally, supports preparation of derivative works in this
> fashion. For that reason, it is almost certainly illegal.
I would think that, since the commercials themselves are original works,
each independently protected, and the show is an original work,
independently protected, that the separation of two distinct and separate
original works from each other would not be an infringement. There is NO
copyright for the package that was broadcast: the TV show AND the
commercials. Each exists separately on their own. (and, frankly, the
copyrights are held by different companies)
If you ONLY edited out the commercials, and made no other change to the
content, that would constitute a copy of single protected entity - the show.
No derivative work involved. Now, if you edited the SHOW, that would be a
different matter.
If I videotape an episode of Star Trek, (Copyright held by Paramount), off
of Spike TV, and edit out commercial by Pepsi, Ford, and Budweiser (said
commercials copyrights held by respective companies), then how am I
violating Paramount's copyright (in the manner of creating a derivative
work) by removing content from my specific copy that is owned by unrelated
companies?