Format Shifting DVDS for a Media Player

[emmah]

Anybody aware of the current laws on format shifting? I am getting lots of conflicting advice about whether I can back up DVDs to a media player. Its for use in a College so the lecturers can keep the educational films in one place and the students can access them locally via the TV. All the copies would be of material the College owns anyway, and we would keepo the originals. Any ideas? Cheers.

[mac_shinobi]

UK law set to change to allow format shifting...on CDs and DVDs [Archive] - MobileRead Forums

 

BBC News - Government drops website blocking

 

Not sure if this is only for personal use ref format shifting or if schools / colleges etc are allowed to do the same ?

 

Could be wrong here in saying this but personally I don't see any issues as its not like you are making any profit / money by format shifting educational content

[Arthur]

Not sure if this is only for personal use ref format shifting

It is. Schools and colleges would be classed as businesses so the law is different for them.

 

Could be wrong here in saying this but personally I don't see any issues as it's not like you are making any profit / money by format shifting educational content

Whether you profit from it is irrelevant. You still need permission from the copyright holder.

 

Some of the educational DVDs we use at school specifically state on the case that the content can be stored on the network, but not all of them are like this.