Did you know that you’re violating federal copyright law by watching a movie with a group of familiar acquaintances in your living room? Well, that’s apparently the deal here at BYU, anyway. I, along with my roommate and FHE group co-leader, have been cited in the books as copyright felons because we watched Ironman in the apartment lobby (during legal visiting hours!)

Frustratingly enough, nothing can be done about it. But, cringing in any regard to authority, I argue my case here. BYU’s housing guidelines (which nobody reads because generally they’re common sense…) state:

Also, please be aware that copyright laws prohibit showing video or DVD movies in common areas in or around the residence halls.

Oh do they now! I can prove that statement wrong in about a minute. Copyright laws do not prohibit showing videos or DVD movies in “common areas around the residence halls [at BYU]“. Find me one place in the law books where it says that BYU students can’t show that type of media in their dormitory living rooms.

“Common areas”… interesting words. Each apartment’s kitchen is as common as the lobby during visiting hours. The “lobby” is each apartment’s living room, basically. The R.A. that wrote us up (from Bowen Hall) used the term “public area” several times.

Thus “public” is synonomous with “common” (according a residence halls authority). The US Code states:

17 U.S.C. § 101 (1988) (definition of “publicly”)

20. To perform or display a work “publicly” means –
(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or
(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.

Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/usc_sec_17_00000101—-000-.html

Obviously, the absolutely substantial amount of three people gathered outside the normal circle of our FHE group family and our social acquaintances and totally transmitting the movie to those standing outside the window at the same time was very public and obviously falls within this definition.

That whole last paragraph was a load of sarcastic rubbish, by the way. (The window blinds were closed too.)

So much for a public setting.

Title 17 also mentions this:

17 U.S.C. §110 Numb. (5) Paragraph (A)

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the following are not infringements of copyright:

(5)(A) except as provided in subparagraph (B), communication of a transmission embodying a performance or display of a work by the public reception of the transmission on a single receiving apparatus of a kind commonly used in private homes, unless -
(i) a direct charge is made to see or hear the transmission; or
(ii) the transmission thus received is further transmitted to the public”

Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/110.html

Since neither this paragraph nor subparagraph B nor does the defintion of “publicly” apply to my situation, and since the only reference the BYU Housing Guidelines cite is the copyright law (not even creating their own, stricter “rules” - only enforcing the laws that already exist), in no way is the accusation made by the R.A. on duty valid at all.

Next, BYU Housing differentiates “video” and “DVD,” I’m assuming, to include both VHS and DVD video formats. Ironman was downloaded - yes, legally - from iTunes. I preordered it in September for about $15.00. It is neither VHS nor DVD, nor can it become such (thanks to DRM).

Looking extensively into Apple’s website, iTunes’ legal pages (scroll down to number 9 for Usage Rules) and various windows in iTunes, I’ve found only this warning applying to copyright:

FBI ANTI-PIRACY WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED COPYING IS PUNISHABLE UNDER FEDERAL LAW.

Okay. I didn’t do any copying. And, I’m sure they’ll let me know if they care if I ever violate their law… which I won’t, cause that would be stupid.

Did you know the movie, purchased from iTunes, doesn’t even have those usual FBI piracy warnings at the beginning? Obviously, the laws still apply - the laws which I have not broken (how the heck did I copy the movie anyway, according to that RA?) - but the movie does not have the warnings embedded in it. Probably doesn’t matter, but I thought it was interesting.

You know, what’s more is that when she originally came by and asked us what we were doing, informed us of our crime, and told me to turn the movie off, I turned off the movie without complaint. Okay, fair enough I initially thought. I prepared to go back inside my dorm and call it a night when she came back and wrote us up. So now we’re in the books. And hey, my roommate wasn’t even watching the movie; he was diddling on his laptop or something. But alas, guilt by association.

Should I be surprised?

I hoped to get away from this at BYU… I had enough issues with unjust authority at my high school.

You know, if there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving to Utah, it’s that my life in Iowa was boring. I didn’t realize it at the time, but geez.

Wait, did I even mention that? My my, it has been a while. Since my last post and this website renovation I have moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University in Provo.

Why did I not notice that, suddenly, my life is full of substance? I’m actually doing things. There are things I can actually write about! (Which explains why the ‘old’ blog posts from Iowa only count to… three.) I still don’t know why you would care, but regardless, this may help me with my grade in ENGL 150.

My blog is back with a new design. Sleek black adorns the header and interactive rollovers hopefully compel you to click around. Colors behind add contrast to the content which is now displayed black-on-light-grey which is much more appealing to the eyes than the old white-on-black theme. Some found it hard to see features on the old design, already squinting to read the text.

The Old Header (raised brightness and contrast)

For example, with the old design, did you know there was a “floor” between my small name at the top and the navigational tabs?

Did you know the background faded from black to dark, steel blue? Did you know the content had a shadow around it, and that the links on the sides were actually divided by small grey lines?

This new format features an elegant name in the header, featured pages which glow “onMouseOver,” and drop-down menus which aid in placing the growing amount of useful content. The nice thing is that it (should) display properly on all major browsers: IE7, Firefox 2.1+, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome. To keep things pertinent, you can see what time it currently is where I live on the top-right.

The Old Navigation (shown with higher contrast and brightness) - difficult to see

To add something interesting, I’ll probably be changing up the background “flares” of the site once in a while… and did you notice the dancing man on the right side “black box”?

Maybe I should address the name change, or rather, new name… period. This blog is now powered by the latest WordPress version, and, with that, a new domain. “Blog von mir” means “blog of me” auf Deutsch and is accessible through http://blog.mwholt.com or http://www.blogvonmir.com. Both will take you to the former, which is here.