Archival Is Not Piracy
Today, access to piracy is everywhere in computers. We can decrypt
a DVD to allow others to watch copies. We can rip music off a Music CD and sell
copies worth less than a penny each. We can let others intall our purchased
programs on multiple computers. Piracy can happen as easy as Copy and Paste.
Are these acts legal? No, but "fair use" laws say that as long as the copies are
for archival purposes only, it's legal. Now, if this is true, then why is one type of
archival penalized by court? Why is the act of archiving video game carts (also
called "cart dumping") considered as bad as piracy? Why is it is considered
illegal?
Lik-Sang, one of the most well-known distributers of game cart back-
up units, had been sued by Nintendo for 700 grand ($641,000) for the world-wide
distribution of game cart copiers (also called cart game cart back-up devices).
Bob Stensholt election DVD
DVD collection
English: Optical disc drive, CD/DVD writer from th...Sued for just the distribution of game cart copiers. (Rik)
How is this fair? How is the distribution of the devices illegal? No real
crime of copyright infringement had been commited. It isn't the act of selling
copies of games that happened, but just the selling of those back-up devices. Is
that really illegal? DVD drives and CD drives that copy and create Music CDs
and DVDs aren't really considered ellegal. In fact, they are sold commercially
and are well-known all over the US. These drives are used for us to make
archival copies of our DVDs and CDs, but the business of manufacturing such
devices hasn't yet been halted by any copyright infringement law. The thought of
it has come to mind of many, but DVD/CD writers are still being distributed
worldwide because it has been understood that...