Hey All,

I'm going to be tossing my old VHS collection. I am in the US region. I am happy to give it away to anyone provided they pay for all the shipping costs. The primary question is if this is considered piracy or have copyright issues. I'd like to support the producers as much as I can.

The tapes are Wet and Messy from some producers no longer active. MessyFun, SSS / MK II Productions, Artscene Aquantics, WSM and Penthouse. All in working condition and even original inserts to the VHS boxes.

Before I put out anything, I am checking the best way as disposing of them to the dump seems to be such a waste.

Thanks

Ivan

I believe it is legal under the First-Sale Doctrine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine
Think of it this way: Have you ever been to a used record store, a used book store, etc? Same concept. Hell, my local high school has a book sale every year where they sell used books, VHS tapes, DVDs, etc.

Considering all the red tube links posted in here that people absolutely do not have the copyright to, I am sure selling old VHS or giving them away is fine.

Selling or giving away old VHS tapes is fine and doesn't break copyright, because you're not making a copy, you're passing on a single physical copy to someone else's ownership.

The problem arises if you've made a digital backup of the tapes, if so, you need to either delete it, or pass that to the new owner (and then delete your copy).

Copyright is exactly what it says - the "right" to "copy". Only the copyright owner (original producer or their heirs) can do that. But as long as no extra copies are being made, selling the original physical media is fine.

Legally even making a digital backup is against the law, however in most cases no-one will get prosecuted for that as long as they don't make the copy available for anyone else to download / stream / acquire. Much as no-one ever got prosecuted in the VHS age for video recording TV shows for personal use, even though it was technically copyright infringement. Recording and then rebroadcasting or selling copies of the tape on the other hand was treated very seriously.

The way to look at all copyright issues is to ask yourself "if I do this action, will that result in one or more extra copies of this work being made that don't already exist?" If the answer is yes, it's copyright infringement. If the answer is no, then you're all clear to proceed.

Thanks for responses and makes sense that additional copies is where its unlawful and also hurts the producers. Oddly enough, over time, I have since purchased the online version of them as copying the tapes version of then was too much of a hassle for me to convert. I'll send out a message if anyone wants them as a take all.

Appreciate the quick response!