Most of the VHS/VCR tapes our customers bring to turn to DVDs are home movies – weddings, vacations, or kids being silly with the guitar. Occasionally, someone comes in with a commercial, Hollywood movie to turn to DVD. They like the movie, but don’t have the VCR machine anymore.
Is it legal to copy commercial VHS tapes to DVD? The answer is “Yes” if all 3 situations below are true.
1. Not available in DVD. You already searched online, offline for a DVD version of your movie and you couldn’t find it. Example, did you know Casablanca is not only available in DVD, it’s available in black and white version, color version, 70th anniversary version. And any of these can be found online for about $20. That’s around how much you’d pay to get your VHS transferred to DVD. For the same price, you get a studio-mastered DVD production with full-graphic case insert.
Casablanca, and many other Hollywood films are already available on DVD
2. You own the VHS outright. You didn’t borrow it from a library, a friend, a school. You paid cold hard cash for it and own it. Only then does the ‘Fair Use’ provision applies, which in simple terms, states that if you pay good money for something, you have the right to continue using it. Implying that if the technology has changed, no more VCR players out there, you have the right to change with technology so you can continue to enjoy what you paid money for.
3. You’re duplicating the content for personal or educational use only. You’re not planning to turn your “Gone with the Wind” VCR tape to DVDs to sell on eBay are you? That’s illegal. That is the reason why we will only make 1 DVD from your video tapes.
If you answer “yes’ to all the 3 conditions above, then bring your tape over, transfer it to DVD. Here are 6 bad things that can happen to your VHS tapes over time.
If you have any more questions on transferring your tapes to DVD, feel free to call us at 617 332-3300.
You may also find our official VHS to DVD copyright policy helpful.
