[Renegade]

Copying a DVD over the internet from someone who PURCHASED the original, is no different than making a copy of a vinyl record, cassette tape, or CD that you bought and giving it to a friend .

[Illbay]

Correct. They're both illegal.

[LostPassword]

Actually, you can make copies and give them to a friend. The "Audio Home Recording Act" of 1992. Summary at http://www.hrrc.org/html/ahra_summary.html. There are other views of the act, but I've only heard the RIAA avoid it rather than debate it (but when really pushed, they admit that you can make non-commercial copies for friends).

Copyright holders get a royalty from every sale of a recording device or recordable media (audio tape, writable CD, DAT,etc) which is used to pay for their "loss" of sale that occurs when you make a copy for a friend.

[Honcho]

Copying a DVD over the internet from someone who PURCHASED the original, is no different than making a copy of a vinyl record, cassette tape, or CD that you bought and giving it to a friend .


Well I think the music studios didn't have as much problem with that because in those examples you gave there was quite a quality difference between the original and the copy. There was still a good reason to go out and buy an original. In this case there is virtually no difference in quality and that's the big beef here.