Jose G

DVD recorders

Hi, folks! I'm looking to buy a dvd recorder so that I can back up my old vhs tapes. Now some of these are movies from long ago. My questions are: 1) Is it legal to back up an old movie for personal use. The tapes take up way too much space in a small apartment, so i would love to do this. 2) I've heard that many vhs tapes won't transfer, but I know some people do it. How is this done? Is it legal? 3) Someone told me that the law recently changed and it is no longer legal to back up a store bought dvd for personal use. Is this the case? And if so, does this law apply to vhs back up as well? 4) finally, I also heard that when you back up a movie, the sound is not copywritten. That doesn't seem to make sense to me.

ChuckSolo

Well, I can tell you that you WILL have trouble copying pre-recoded VHS tapes encrypted with Macrovision. Some older titles may be OK, but it would still be in violation of copyrights to copy them unless the title is in the public domain. Also, your recorder will usually tell you if the material you are trying to copy, VHS or DVD, is "protected content" and will not allow you to do proceed.

Jose G

So what I've heard about "for personal use" or because the tapes degrade after a certain period is all bunk? And what about the fact that there is a new law stating that dvd's can't be duplicated for back-up use. Doesn't that imply that you were able to make back ups before this law was passed? I really have no intention- just in case anyone is thinking that I am- of duplicating movies from a dvd, even though my daughter has ruined one or two dvd's in the past. I'm not a big dvd collector- drives my wife nuts that I really don't like seeing the same movie more than once (for the most part- with few exceptions). I'm just curious about all this and wondering if it's worth getting a dvd recorder at all.