Typically, Seattle Video Transfer transfers Family Home Movies & self-produced Personal or Corporate Videos & Audio. Home movies, family videos or personally-produced videos or recordings are acceptable for transfer, or anything that you or your organization personally owns the copyright to or has registered the copyright for.
Copyrights are granted by the U.S. Library of Congress to the producing or holding company which created the content in question – these are not transferred to you upon purchasing a commercial videotape or cassette or professionally-released movie that you might purchase at a retail store, for example.
It is a violation of applicable copyright laws under Title 17 of the U.S. Code as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 and anti-piracy laws for Seattle Video Transfer to transfer materials to DVD or CD for you for which you do not own the copyright.
Use the following search tools to determine if the work(s) you desire to transfer to DVD or other format are potentially copyright-protected:
There is a great amount of controversy surrounding the “Doctrine of Fair Use” (note: doctrine) and Copyright Law Infringement (note: law). Our business has chosen to play it on the safe side and not transfer anything that has been a broadcast, either commercial or not, recorded off public broadcast or not, that might possibly be protected under Title 17 of the US Code. Additionally, since we are essentially making money through media production to transfer potentially copyright-protected media from one format to another, without any credit or commissions/royalties/license fees paid to the original copyright holder, we would make ourselves liable to potential lawsuits.
You often see the warnings preceding any such content as saying “Copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by [etc.]…” These are warnings we take very seriously. We are often requested to transfer media from VHS that has been copyrighted but is on moratorium. However copyrights can hold a 50-year life, at the end of which can be renewed. So in all cases where it is not a personal recording of family content, home movies, or something you yourself produced or starred in or hold the copyright to yourself, we must flatly decline, unless express written consent has been granted by the original copyright holder.
As business owners, we have to err on the side of good judgment and must play it safe.
If you are able to obtain express written permission from the original copyright holder granting you permission to reproduce copyright-protected material from one media to another, we would gladly explore transferring your materials.
Thanks for your understanding.
