Bootleg gig DVDs

Does anyone else collect DVDs of live gigs (audience recordings etc?)

Note to admins: As far as the legal aspect goes, this is only for collecting Recordings Of Independent Origin - no commercial material is allowed. All gig DVD trading websites I use strictly enforce this policy, and will only allow people to do freebie trading for non-financial reasons (i.e. no selling) on a 1:1 basis. Whilst there are loads of places online that have these gigs for download, I've discovered that there is much, much more available on people's DVD lists. Plus, having a DVD-sized jiffy bag arriving through your letterbox is much more exciting than a uTorrent "Download finished" popup message :D Just like the old days of Amiga Floppy Disk swapping in the early 1990s!

I'll understand where you're coming from if you feel this thread needs to be deleted, but hopefully, due to fact that these sites are strongly opposed to piracy of commercial material, it will be allowed to stay.

Cheers

I would imagine this is still a no-no on Hexus :(

I'll inquire, but I honestly can't see it being allowed Mike :(

I would have thought this is a very grey area as the performers still own the copyright of the material they are playing. At least that's how I see it, its no different than taking a video camera in the cinema.:stop:

Sorry guys defo going to have to close this one, the copyright remains with the performer even if the recording is of an independent nature.

It is a somewhat grey area.

This kind of "bootleg" is certainly not as illegal as some illicit material. If you're trading copyright material as part of a business, then that would (in many jurisdictions) be a criminal matter. If you're counterfeiting commercial material, that'd be a more serious criminal matter. That, presumably, is why the sites Mike referred to impose the restriction that they do.

However, the right of artists to control and authorise recordings of their works is a principle that has been in international copyright law since the Berne convention, and is clearly included in many (or most) domestic copyright laws, certainly including the US and the UK (and in EU copyright directives, so presumably, in other EU domestic laws too).

So these unauthorised "audience" recordings are, in my opinion,. clearly in breach of copyright law. It might be a civil breach rather than a criminal offence, but they're still illegal copies.

Here's the "grey area" bit. Some artists authorise audience recordings, albeit with restrictions. If an artist authorised audience records, on the stipulation that it was for the personal use of the recorder and not tp be traded or sold, then the recording itself would be legal providing you met that limitation, but would become illegal if traded or sold. If the artist permitted audience recordings and permitted trading but not selling, then you could trade without the recording being illegal, but it'd become an illegal copy if you sold it.

Our problem is that while it's certainly possible that some recordings that would be traded would be fully legal, a good many would not, as most artists don't authorise them .... and their contracts may well be such that such rights aren't theirs to authorise but belong to the record company anyway.

So, do HEXUS want to get involved in what may very well be facilitating illegal trading in copyright materials? Sorry, but the answer to that is "no".