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larrypahl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 18, 2008
3
0
Two parts to the question. Is it legal for me to take very short clips from commerical DVDs (I am a history teacher at a public school) to show in my class for educational purposes.

If so, what software can I use to get the clips off the DVD?

:)
 
I can almost guarantee that it won't be legal for you to do this. Copyright law is a complicated and a uncomfortable mistress that is intended to serve the original creator, but really serves massive rights holders such as Sony and Universal. I doubt the director and writer would care if you did such a thing to further the education of people, but I'm sure that there are plenty of lawyers with a vested interest in feathering their nest might turn their head.

This does of course depend on your concern of being discovered. Millions in the UK assumed that making MP3's of their CD's has been covered by fair use law, but no such law exists and so every single one of them has technically broken the law. But it's a civil matter, not a criminal one.

Unless you decide on selling or giving copies out I wouldn't worry.

As for software that can manage this you could start with Handbrake and Mactheripper. These should be a good starting point.
 
I can almost guarantee that it won't be legal for you to do this.
Well, it just might, this is - unlike most other uses of the term - actually where fair use comes into play:

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.
 
As for software that can manage this you could start with Handbrake and Mactheripper. These should be a good starting point.

Thanks for your help... I just downloaded Mactheripper but I want to just get clips and it seems set up to copy the whole DVD...? What is Handbrake? :)
 
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