I purchased L&C Seasons 1-4 on dvd last year, and have enjoyed watching them. They are real with the cases and all, not illegal copies.

I got the idea a few weeks ago to try to put the episodes on my iPod touch, and after a little work I found a software program to rip the dvd to a mp4 file, which will play on the iPod. I did PML first, and it turned out great! My question is this: Is this legit?

Once upon a time, this kind of thing would come under 'fair use'. The rule that meant that we could buy a CD or music tape and make a copy backup for our own use. Or record programmes from TV for our own playback. So long as it wasn't for profit or sharing multiple copies among a host of people, copyright holders had no claim. Courts accepted that people weren't breaking any laws in doing so.

In subsequent years since the advent of the internet and digital services, copyright holders have tried to argue that fair use isn't valid any more.

The law's take on it has been pretty inconsistent, but there's no doubt that it's a dang sight harder to claim fair use now and get away with it than it used to be.

Having said that, I haven't really been paying much attention to the legalities of it recently or who is winning the battle. Last I heard, the jury was still out and copyright holders hadn't entirely proven their case. Courts still tended in the main to uphold the fair use principle.

Perhaps others, who've been paying more attention, might know of updates that contradict that or can give you more detailed info.

LabRat

As far as I know (and I've ripped various episodes of MacGyver onto my iPod), it's legit as long as you own (i.e. purchased yourself, or were given as a gift which someone else legally purchased) the disc you're ripping it from. It'd be kind of stupid for royalties to be charged on the same customer for the exact same product. Unless you're going from one tangible format to another, like upgrading from VHS to DVD, of course.

If you're really worried about it though, you could always fork out the money to download the episodes through iTunes, but that seems like overkill to me.

Well, as much as the big media companies have tried to influence people to think that when you buy something, you're just buying the physical part, and the digital bits are still theirs, that doesn't make much sense. As Labby pointed out, that should be fair use. You bought it, after all. People rip CDs to their computers all the time, and don't have to pay again to download the mp3s onto their computer (that of course would then be locked DRM and all that, if they're unfortunate).

Would the copyright holders like you to buy it again? Of course! Greed drives a lot of copyright nowadays (in many market systems, such as music, the people who create the product actually get very little money--much of the profit is sucked up by big companies which squander much of it on extras and luxuries for their employees--though independent artists are a different case altogether), and they would love for people to buy things twice so they can get more money for it. Should you have to? No way!

So go ahead, rip 'em and enjoy them. If you're not sharing them, it's simply private use of a product you already purchased. And I can guarantee you that unless you're sharing them online, no one is going to hunt you down and charge you with anything for it. You should be fine.

(If you're curious about all this copyright stuff, there's a really good free--as in public domain--e-book out there by a guy named Lawrence Lessig. He calls it Free Culture, and made it public domain so everyone could freely get it and read it. You can find it easily with a search. It's rather fascinating.)

Enjoy watching!

Thanks for the responses! As discussed, I feel like as long as I'm not sharing these files for profit or for any other viewing except my own from legally purchased media that it is within the law, but just because I think so doesn't mean it IS so. Also, before I did this, I checked iTunes and there are not episodes available for download, only the soundtrack (unless I missed it somehow) . Looking forward to catching up on a few eps during my next road trip, if I can talk my husband into driving the whole way