1. Doesn't seem any different to me than recording a TV show to videotape to watch it at a different time/place.

Posted at 1:36PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Chris

2. Ethically its fine.
Netflix's terms of use are here: http://www.netflix.com/TermsOfUse?hnjr=8

Seems like you can't do it, and this is why organizations like the pirate party is trying to change the legality.

Please check out http://www.pirate-party.us

Posted at 1:47PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Jonathan

3. Depends on who you ask. If you ask the media companies, then yes, you've broken the law as they think it should be and you should be locked away for a very long time for media shifting their content.

If you ask the courts, then who knows. It is legal under fair use in a "we didn't think of that when we wrote that law" sense, but prob isn't under the DMCA. They're just waiting for the next big congressional payoff to cement the law that their buddies in the MPAA want them to throw at you.

If you ask every other human being on the planet outside of congress and the movie industry then it's perfectly fine and you have done nothing wrong.

Posted at 1:55PM on Sep 28th 2006 by -gary

4. Circumventing DRM is illegal under DMCA. You would be breaking CSS to rip the DVD to your computer, so you would be breaking the law. Sucks.

Posted at 2:16PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Stewart Pitt

5. Tom: it's obviously an homage to the real Ethicist... i don't think the obviously jokin use is gonna cause them any harm--in fact it will just get them more attention.

Posted at 2:18PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Jason

6. Legally wrong. But ethically fine IMHO.

How about this one, Jason? What was the first vinyl album you bought? Let's say it was a Rush album. You do not have that Rush vinyl album in your possession anymore (mom threw it away when you wen to college), so how would you feel, ETHICALLY not legally, about getting MP3s of that Rush album from your friend or a P2P network?

Posted at 2:25PM on Sep 28th 2006 by You Mon Tsang

7. This is a little like asking "If a tree falls in the forest..." If you hadn't told us anything, and done it anyway, would it still be breaking the law? The government does this sort of thing all the time; it's the basis for the adorable term 'plausible deniability'. If you had to ask the question, then you didn't know it was illegal (if it is).

Then again, they say ignorance of the law is no excuse, which has always seemed to me to be a weak assertion. We're supposed to just know what's lawful, and what's not, based on the sterling examples our leaders provide.

I should think you have more things to worry about than this minor issue. That's my Alexandrian solution to this Gordian Knot: Focus on the really pressing problems, and by the time you realize that something potentially dodgy has gone by, it'll be too late to do anything about it. I defy anyone to prove that it even happened. Morally careless? Blame the goverment for bad parenting.

Posted at 2:28PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Akela Talamasca

8. Yeah but you really shouldn't use the NYT's copywritten artwork....Martin's gonna get ya.

Posted at 2:29PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Tom W.

9. Fair use! (I was just kidding anyway - actually I agree with your recent arguments on YouTube's bizmodel)

Posted at 2:34PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Tom W.

10. I say no problem, because 1) you're not sharing this DVD rip by posting it on the internet, 2) you're not showing it in public and charging people to make money off it 3) you're deleting the file after you watch it. 4) you're not costing netflix or the movie companies any money when you do this. You already paid the rental fee. No harm done to others which is part of the definition of what's ethical.

That said I doubt any of this would stand up in court but this is ethics not what's legal.

Posted at 11:23AM on Sep 29th 2006 by Webomatica