Here’s the breakdown: My boss wants to take small inspirational clips from famouse movies (i.e Patton, Wallstreet, etc.) and use them during team-building seminars. I’m pretty computer savvy, but I never really dabbled in the video-editing field. What would be the best way to capture small clips from DVD’s? I could get an analog-digital tuner card and use Windows Movie Maker to capture and assemble clips played on my DVD player. Is this the typical way of approaching this? Is there any software that can capture directly from a PC DVD player without the need for any hardware?
On a side note, are there any legal ramifications for using these clips? We wouldn’t be gaining any profit from them, but rather using them for in-house inspiration and humor.
All the movies you list as example are copyrighted, and the DVD’s will be copy protected (encrypted). Breaking the encryption of the DVDs is illegal in the United States, and probably most other places. While there may be some fair use criteria which could allow you to use short clips, I doubt that using them for any commercial enterprise, including internal team building exercises, would be allowed without some sort of compensation.
Specific to your question, however, a good source to find lots of information on this subject, including reviews of the tools for doing video editing, can be found at www.videohelp.com.
Oh, forgot to mention, don’t even bother with the analog to digital video card. The same protection that prevents you from copying a DVD to a VCR will prevent those captures as well.
Hmm, really? I know VCRs are required to have the automatic gain control circuitry that makes Macrovision work, but are PC video capture cards also required to have it? Section 1201(k) of the DMCA requires it for VCRs, but I don’t see anything there about video capture cards.
As for breaking the encryption of the DVDs… it probably isn’t illegal in most other countries. The DMCA, which is what makes it illegal in the US, is an American law that has no equivalent in most places outside the US.
Also, it is probably legal to circumvent Macrovision, since it’s a copy control, not an access control. But that’s irrelevant if copying the clips for this presentation is illegal in itself - I share AZCowboy’s doubts that using movie clips for a company exercise would count as fair use.
midget . Just to add to the opinions you’ve already gotten in this thread, it is illegal to do what you want to do in the US. And, since this board is based in the US, the thread is closed.