Hi everyone,
I’m starting my self hosting journey and have run into a snag. I just took a job where I need to get govt security clearance and take polygraphs etc, so I cannot engage in piracy.
What that means in practice is actually abiding the ToS for all my media, so I cannot rip DVDs, I cannot capture streams (I believe including YouTube channels because they’re copyrighted and YT ToS but please correct me if I’m wrong because that would be amazing).
What I’ve done so far:
There is legal precedent to rip CDs and digitize books for personal consumption, and I have also begun buying albums I want from Amazon Music (they let you download the mp3 files directly instead of a Spotify/YT Music system).
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I am going to be hosting immich for my Google Photos replacement
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I don’t know the best service for a YT Music/Spotify replacement, but maybe Jellyfin of nothing else.
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I want to have a digital movie library.
So there’s the rub. How can I have a digital movie library without ripping DVDs? It is an unauthorized reproduction and although nobody is prosecuted, it is illegal and I’d have to disclose that.
Any advice is welcome, and I’d love to hear conversation about this.
I cannot rip DVDs
In the US, this is legal:
“This means that you can legally rip a DVD for personal use, as long as you don’t violate any of the other copyright laws. What does this mean in practice? You can rip a DVD for your own personal use, but you can’t distribute the ripped file to others. You also can’t make a copy of the ripped file for someone else.”
https://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/is-it-legal-to-rip-dvd.html
pro tip: if you do not read the ToS, you also can’t lie about if you are breaking them or not
you can manually find which movies are out of their copyright period and are free to download, but you’ll only be watching 50s/early 2000s romcoms if you do that
Polygraph don’t measure truth. They measure your nerves. If you are nervous about obfuscating your piracy it would show up on the graph
So you want to be one of the 5% of honest government employees…
What country is this? No one cares this much except North Korea and i dont think you would be posting on Reddit if your worried about a little piracy.
Just don’t distribute anything.
Ripping DVDs for personal consumption should count as fair use, no?