Question - Movies in the Classroom
Part I: A History professor teaching a class on World War II wants to show his class the movie "Saving Private Ryan." The professor has a DVD copy of the movie, but the classroom in which he teaches only has a VHS player. After calling around to several video rental stores and determining that there is not a VHS copy of the movie available, the professor copies the DVD to VHS format and shows the movie. Has the professor violated copyright?
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Yes, because copyright protection extends to format as well as content. Accordingly, it is a violation of copyright to convert one media format to another media format. The only exception to this rule is when a format is obsolete and then, only if the work is not available in a non-obsolete format. Obsolete, in this sense, means that the "device necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."