Is it legal to download a show from a site if I own the DVDs?

I would be making a music video with songs I've legally bought. It'd be for my own entertainment, not for a site. I just can't get the clips onto WMM from my DVDs.

I mean downloading the video itself.

Actually, that first answer is sooooo wrong. You did not 'purchase the license', that is so ridiculous. People pay millions for license rights, not $17.99.

When you purchase a CD or DVD you purchase the media as it's presented 'in that format', and for that only. Otherwise, I could buy a videotape of a movie and then just take a DVD copy because I already paid for the movie in another format? No, I couldn't. It's the same with downloading.

Any way you slice it, it's illegal to download any copywritten material that isn't purchased as a download or provided free by a website, whether it's for personal use only or other use. Even if you already own the video and want to download it.


That being said, if you want to get the clips from your DVDs, you first have to convert them to a digital format. Then you can save them on your hard drive and use them with WMM.

Good luck with your music video.

I'm pretty sure you can, becaue you have purchased the licence to listen to that music. So downloading it is just like having another copy of what you already have purchased.

What's legal and what will land you in court are two very different things. The recording industry has been suing people for serious infractions, minor infractions, and sometimes for no actual infraction of copyright laws. Trying to defend yourself is both expensive, exhausting, and one hell of an uphill fight. Even if you have the legal right to download the video, you put yourself at risk of legal action.

Even assuming it is legal, and accepting that the risks of getting caught are small, the cost of being caught is incredibly high.

Lastly, you purchased a single license to use the material on the DVD for personal use. It's a surprisingly restricted license. Think about it this way, is it legal for you to make a copy of the DVD? -- NO. And it is similarly illegal for you to download a copy.