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Is handbrake legal?
- Thread starter dukebound85
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The program isn't illegal. What you copy and circumvent can be illegal. It's the act methinks. The act of circumventing encryption of a DVD you do not own the copyright of.
That's my opinion too
However, how does yours and my opinion hold up in the light of the law?
I'm not an expert or anything, but I think that under the "Fair Use" policy, you can make copies of media as long as they are for your personal use, and aren't given away or sold.
Technically it is illegal to bypass copy protection; but fair use does allow for backups. I don't think you could get busted for copyright violation, but you can get busted for bypassing copy protection. Lame. You should be allowed to back up your investments.
If it is illegal, then I have a few questions
1) Why are we allowed to talk about these apps? Most, if not all, who use these apps use it to bypass the protection for commercial backups
2) What are the chances of being "caught"
3) Is it a safe risk or should I not bother?
Same here buuut our views don't mean squat as far as the law is concerned sadly
1) Why are we allowed to talk about these apps? Most, if not all, who use these apps use it to bypass the protection for commercial backups
2) What are the chances of being "caught"
3) Is it a safe risk or should I not bother?
Same here buuut our views don't mean squat as far as the law is concerned sadly
Because the programs themselves are legal, and what most of us do is still a very "grey" area.
Unless you put 'em in a .torrent and let everyone have at 'em, zilch.
Safe as can be, to be honest.
As stted above, programmes like this and even torrent clients are legal because there are legit reasons for using them. torrents are a really fast, secure and easy was of sending big files to people (ie collaborative projects such as music production/paper writing) and handbrake can be used to get data off of a disc.
They are legal tools that you can hypothetically of course) use for illegal purposes.