Is it really 'THAT' wrong to record from TV (and keep it)

Rob Del Monte will really love this thread once he sees it. I do love how a large number of threads all descend into an argument about grammar due to the pedantry of one or two individuals.

Moving back to the original subject, although other people have stated it's against the law to record and keep copies of programmes / programs - I have no preference with the spelling of the word, I'm just covring my back with the grammar police on patrol - I'd say unless the police were to raid every household which has a VCR, DVD Recorder or any other form of televisual recording device and waste a whole load of tax payers' money, I sincerely doubt that there'd be any problem with you recording and keeping those two shows.

To drag it back on topic.

As far as I see it if they continue to produce blank DVD's & DVD Recorders then they can't really have a go.

However If you start selling them to people then I can understand objections

Some people have said how it cannot be wrong, because TV companies release programmes onto DVD and video. But then, its their material to release, therefore you cannot compare it.

However, I do not think it is wrong to record and keep programmes which are freely avaliable to watch on your television.

The whole question of DVDs, internet downloads demonstrates how much of a grey area this whole thing is.

What's the difference between recording a series to a DVD-R as it's being shown on a TV channel, and copying the official DVD that's released some time later?

Or indeed, downloading a copy of a programme from a torrent. This has the same effect as recording it from the TV, yet the former is frowned upon to a much greater extent. One could argue that a downloaded copy of a TV programme is no more morally or legally questionable than a borrowed video of same.

If the licence covers you for one viewing and one viewing only, why are Sky producing recorders capable of making bit-perfect copies of programmes which can (theoretically) be kept permanently on the hard drive of a Sky+ machine?

The whole issue of copyright control of broadcast material is completely unenforceable, and whilst, technically, the law is quite clear that keeping recordings is illegal, it's not something that they're ever going to be able to prove in a court of law anyway -- how do you determine how many times a video tape or DVD-R has been viewed?

Forget the law, everyone else does.

There was that case in the early 1980's when (i think) Bob Monkhouse was caught out by the police for recording programmes onto VHS.