Here's the quick legal answer...
The law gives the people who produce the material the right to copy the material (hence the name copyright). As long as somebody else owns a copyright on something, no other copy is legal unless (a) the copyright owner gives you permission, or (b) it falls under a specific exception of the copyright law.
Most of the exceptions under the law are pretty straightforward, but one is somewhat nebulous - the fair use clause. The courts have held that taping a show for the purpose of time shifting (i.e. watching at a different time than the show is broadcast) falls under fair use. The courts haven't really said how far that goes and have never specifically said, for instance, that it is legal to tape a show, edit out the commercials, keep it forever and watch it over and over again. But they've never said such a thing is illegal, and most people believe such actions are both legal and OK.
So far, there is no exception to the copyright law that would make it legal to buy a DVD, copy it and sell the original. Without such an exception, it is illegal. However, there are some people who's personal definition of "fair use" is pretty broad and would argue that such a thing does fall under fair use and is thus legal. But, personally, that's a bunch of hogwash.
Hopefully, that answers the legal issues as they stand in the US today. If you want to get beyond that into discussions of what the law should be, whether we should obey the law, etc. we will get bogged down into one of our periodic messy nasty arguments that never goes anywhere.
The law gives the people who produce the material the right to copy the material (hence the name copyright). As long as somebody else owns a copyright on something, no other copy is legal unless (a) the copyright owner gives you permission, or (b) it falls under a specific exception of the copyright law.
Most of the exceptions under the law are pretty straightforward, but one is somewhat nebulous - the fair use clause. The courts have held that taping a show for the purpose of time shifting (i.e. watching at a different time than the show is broadcast) falls under fair use. The courts haven't really said how far that goes and have never specifically said, for instance, that it is legal to tape a show, edit out the commercials, keep it forever and watch it over and over again. But they've never said such a thing is illegal, and most people believe such actions are both legal and OK.
So far, there is no exception to the copyright law that would make it legal to buy a DVD, copy it and sell the original. Without such an exception, it is illegal. However, there are some people who's personal definition of "fair use" is pretty broad and would argue that such a thing does fall under fair use and is thus legal. But, personally, that's a bunch of hogwash.
Hopefully, that answers the legal issues as they stand in the US today. If you want to get beyond that into discussions of what the law should be, whether we should obey the law, etc. we will get bogged down into one of our periodic messy nasty arguments that never goes anywhere.
