Roku Developer Program

[MikeFM]

I have a few thousand legally purchased movies ripped and gathering dust. I was wondering what the legality of digitally loaning these out like the library does for the physical discs is. If managed so only as many people could view a movie as I had legal discs for I don't see they could rightfully say it was pirating especially since it's streamed. I guess breaking the CSS so the movie can be transcoded might be illegal? Would Roku allow such a channel?

[nowhereman]

"MikeFM" wrote:
I have a few thousand legally purchased movies ripped and gathering dust. I was wondering what the legality of digitally loaning these out like the library does for the physical discs is. If managed so only as many people could view a movie as I had legal discs for I don't see they could rightfully say it was pirating especially since it's streamed. I guess breaking the CSS so the movie can be transcoded might be illegal? Would Roku allow such a channel?

It has always been my understanding that breaking the CSS in any way is illegal. The only legal way to backup a legitimately purchased DVD is to make a byte for byte copy with CSS in tact. I could easily be wrong, but that has always been my impression.

[KennyJ]

I believe NWM is right and on top of that I believe the doctrine of First Sale which lets libraries loan books and people to rent or sell DVDs does not apply to digital versions -- only physical media.

[MikeFM]

So what's the difference between streaming over the Internet and streaming over a wire from one box in my living room to another? To bad Roku can't play raw DVD data as then you'd not even need to transcode the movie.

[KennyJ]

"MikeFM" wrote:
So what's the difference between streaming over the Internet and streaming over a wire from one box in my living room to another? To bad Roku can't play raw DVD data as then you'd not even need to transcode the movie.

Well if you're breaking CSS then you're technically breaking copyright law either way.

[Auramancer]

I think the point was to ask if one re-framed the service as "remote play of physical disks". Could you legally build a physical DVD farm and time-share them by playing them remotely? Think of something more like Slingbox. I'd like to think the answer is yes, but I am not a lawyer.

[KennyJ]

"Auramancer" wrote:
I think the point was to ask if one re-framed the service as "remote play of physical disks". Could you legally build a physical DVD farm and time-share them by playing them remotely? Think of something more like Slingbox. I'd like to think the answer is yes, but I am not a lawyer.

I'd talk to a copyright lawyer before even attempting that. Whether it's legal or not, I'm sure the studios will sue you. 🙂

[serialjoepsycho]

Libraries loan out their stuff. They physically give you a copy of it. Some libraries may stream certain content but that content is either public domain or licensed to them for streaming. You yourself can stream anything that is either A public domain or B Licensed to you with permission for streaming.