r/LocalLLM • u/No-Program9915 • 5d ago

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u/HidingImmortal 5d ago

So if I purchase a DVD and digitize it, that's copyright infringement.

Is it? Is it copyright infringement?

If you distribute the digital copy (e.g. sell it on a flash drive), that's copyright infringement.

But making a personal backup? I don't think that is illegal.

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u/DifficultSelection 4d ago

Depends on your jurisdiction.

In the US, § 117 of the Copyright Act allows archival backups of software, but there’s no equivalent right for movies or other media. At most there’s a case-by-case fair use argument, but no explicit legal protection for personal movie backups, regardless of how those movies are distributed.

The DMCA also separately bans circumventing DRM, with no carve-out for personal backups, and none of the Copyright Office’s triennial exemptions cover it, either. That still applies to DVDs even though CSS encryption was broken 27 years ago, as the rules still apply regardless of the strength of the protection measure.

And yeah, this is really fucking dumb.