Opinions on the remastered versions

[The Laughing Vulcan]

No.

Purchasing one copy of something doesn't legally entitle you to all future releases in perpetuity.

Now if you had bought a VHS to DVD recorder combi unit, and spent 80 hours backing up your legally purchased VHS tapes to legally purchased DVD-Rs, and then ripped those to HDD and stored a couple clones of that hard drive in a safe place, then you'd be safely in a legally grey area in some territories.

As long as you keep the original tapes as proof of ownership and not just dump them to reclaim shelf space.

 

[TrickyDickie]

No.

Purchasing one copy of something doesn't legally entitle you to all future releases in perpetuity.

The cgi-effects version was the "future release". This was the original-effects version that was identical to what is on the VHS tapes.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

3rd June 2064 is the day Star Trek The Original Series as originally broadcast, will fall into the public domain in the US, assuming the law doesn't change, or Paramount CBS or whoever the rights holders will be at that time don't find some way of extending that. You could argue that the existence of the CGI versions will extend that copyright even further.

 

[UssGlenn]

3rd June 2064 is the day Star Trek The Original Series as originally broadcast, will fall into the public domain in the US, assuming the law doesn't change, or Paramount CBS or whoever the rights holders will be at that time don't find some way of extending that. You could argue that the existence of the CGI versions will extend that copyright even further.

would that be the Original Series as a whole, or just the first episode? How does that work with TV shows?

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

would that be the Original Series as a whole, or just the first episode? How does that work with TV shows?

DuckDuckGo'd US Public Domain Law, and it's 95 years for non-music up to a point (somewhere in the nineteen seventies, when it becomes 70 years after the death of the creator). 3rd June 1969 was when Turnabout Intruder was first broadcast, so I guess it's the whole series at that point.

Apparently the first TV broadcast licenses were issued 97 years ago in the US, but it's a post war industry, and live broadcasts were typically not recorded at first as the technology wasn't there. I'm guessing late forties and early fifties for recorded TV shows (NTSC began in 1954), or TV shows shot on film. Videotape used in TV production arrived in the mid-fifties. So shows from that era, indeed any real television as we know it will not fall into public domain until 2050 at the earliest. I guess we'll only find out then how it will work.

 

[TrickyDickie]

If there is ever an issue, I will happily pay reasonable market value equivalent of the current releases to those concerned.

 

[Maurice]

3rd June 2064 is the day Star Trek The Original Series as originally broadcast, will fall into the public domain in the US, assuming the law doesn't change, or Paramount CBS or whoever the rights holders will be at that time don't find some way of extending that. You could argue that the existence of the CGI versions will extend that copyright even further.

No. It'll be Jan 1, 2065, when the entire original series enters the public domain. For example, on January 1, 2025, all works (audio recordings excluded) from 1929 still under copyright in the US entered the public domain together, regardless of when in 1929 they were released. Copyright granularity is only to the year, not to the month or date.

 

[Tosk]

The cgi-effects version was the "future release". This was the original-effects version that was identical to what is on the VHS tapes.

It doesn't matter.

If there is ever an issue, I will happily pay reasonable market value equivalent of the current releases to those concerned.

I personally don't care if you buy the episodes legit or continue to bootleg them. But don't kid yourself that buying them once legally allows you to own subsequent releases.