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Can a person be liable for piracy if they already own a copy of the artwork?

Asked by BlackSwanEffect (708points) October 28th, 2015

Say I own a copy of a movie on DVD or BluRay, but I wish to view this movie on a device without an optical drive. Say rather than ripping the disc and recoding it myself, I were to turn to an internet piracy site, and download a conveniently ripped and edited version of the same movie.

The copyright owners do not lose any money, because I have a purchased copy. But now I also have a copy in a convenient format that I can view on any device I like. It’s a win-win, right? But it is still technically piracy. Could I, if I were to do such a thing, be liable?

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