One more "thought" here. I have purchased external hard drives, when they are on sale, and put THOUSANDS of  music mp3's on them, in order for someone to listen to, via their PC or laptop . In my last "external hard drive shipment", I had over 60 movies ( in DIVX format) and 3 thousand songs on it. All this , on a 250G hard drive that cost around $80 on sale at Staples. Be Creative !!

I just wanted to warn you that the copying of DVDs and CDs for non personal use is a violation of copyright laws. 

Picking songs from a CD and putting them in MP3 format, and sending them is also illegal.

Marty has previously warned people on here about this.

We don't want this site shutdown for promoting or facilitating copyright violations.

If you want to send a movie to your contact, buy the DVD and mail it.  You have no right to make multiple copies of it, nor to keep a copy for yourself unless you get permission from the publisher.

Absolutely Russ.  In case anyone missed it, a woman in Minnesota just lost a court case last week for downloading and sharing songs.  Her fine is over $200,000.  That is what copyright laws are about unless the law changes in the future.  Just because the technology exists, does not make it legal.

I agree entirely. I myself, have  NEVER made one cent off of copying anything, not ONE CENT. I have spent HUNDREDS of dollars supporting our troops. I PURCHASE or RENT the DVD's, to insure that the artists are paid. I have NEVER downloaded any music. ALL music I have sent to our troops, has been  PAID FOR by me. How do you think MP3's are made??  They are converted from WAV files. There is no music or movies in my files, that I have not PERSONALLY paid for. I am sure that I clearly stated " in no way, attempt to profit from copying anything". I won't respond again to this subject. Thank you !!

http://www.pdinfo.com/copyrt.htm

I would be careful using Netflix because I've heard that some dvd's are stolen by Iraqi's and then sell them to other soldiers.  When I send a cd or dvd, I always write the contact's name on it with a dry marker. 

Teresa 

 

I have had really good luck at Blockbuster when they have their specials 4 for $20.  There is always an employee that is more than willing to help me choose good comedies or action as I really don't watch that many movies myself.  I have always heard back that they loved them (but then again, they would love anything we send) 

Journeyfan:

I agree entirely. I myself, have  NEVER made one cent off of copying anything, not ONE CENT. I have spent HUNDREDS of dollars supporting our troops. I PURCHASE or RENT the DVD's, to insure that the artists are paid. I have NEVER downloaded any music. ALL music I have sent to our troops, has been  PAID FOR by me. How do you think MP3's are made??  They are converted from WAV files. There is no music or movies in my files, that I have not PERSONALLY paid for. I am sure that I clearly stated " in no way, attempt to profit from copying anything". I won't respond again to this subject. Thank you !!

The issue is not whether you profit from it, it is whether you are undermining sales by distributing copies you didn't paid for.  If you pay for one copy (or download), and send that one copy to one soldier, that one copy was arguably paid for.  If you pay for one copy (or download), and send a copy to four different soldiers, then only one copy was paid for and three copies were not paid for.

There is also an argument to be made that the one copy sent to the one soldier was also unpaid for. 

This assumes that the copy (or download) is for your personal use only, so that, if you wanted to send a copy to even one soldier, you would have to pay for a second copy (or download).  On the surface, this doesn't seem to be much different than purchasing a DVD or CD at the store and then giving it as a gift to someone else....that is, that using it as a personal gift is for "personal use."  The key difference is that, if you purchase a DVD or CD at the store and send it to a soldier, you no longer have it available for you to watch/listen to, unless you made a copy.  If you retain a copy in any useable format, then you have one copy, the soldier has another, and only one of those two copies was paid for.

All that said, there is very little, if any, case law involving this type of "small-time" copying and distribution, which means that the courts haven't issued an opinion on these specific scenarios.  And any other opinion, including mine, doesn't count.

 

I just bought a dvd for myself and my husband and I think they soldiers would get a huge kick out of it. It is of a guy on COmedy Central, Jeff Dunham, who is a ventriloguist. He have a bunch of dummies, and one is "Achmed, the dead terrorist" which is alot funnier than it sounds.  He also has an old man, a purple monkey thing, a super hero, and a Jalepeno on a stick. It sould silly in print, but he is really good and i think it is pretty funny. Has anyone seen him on Comedy Central? do you think it would be ok to send it so my soldiers?

thanks for any help on this issue!

Heidi

Does anyone have any thoughts on sending the Transformers movie? It portrayed the military in a really positive way, I thought, but the beginning does show servicemen being killed (rather, it implies it, with explosions, but there's no blood) by a Transformer (as opposed to terrorists).

They do get their revenge (and to show off how awesome they are! :D ) but I wondered if folks thought it would be a little too difficult to view for someone in the military.

 

Valeta,

I haven't seen the movie yet myself, but I had been planning on sending it to one of my groups. I mean, it's Transformers! I played with those with my brothers when I was a kid!

I think most of them watch a lot worse movies, and if you've seen any of the video games that are frequently requested, they are filled with guns, shooting, bombs, explosions, etc. etc.

So I say go ahead.

 

It was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally gooooood. I played with them too! I feared the movie might be awful, but nay...it kept even MY (short) attention. :D

 What you say makes sense, so I'll go ahead and order.
 

If anyone has a Half Price Books store close to them, this is a good place to find used DVDs and CDs.  I found a great deal on DVDs for $3.00 each.  The movies are not recent releases but they had a great selection of good action movies.  This is the type of store where the inventory changes all the time.  The store buys and sells used inventory from its customers and also sells brand new items. 

http://www.halfpricebooks.com/find_a_store.html

 

I saw a four-disk set of Alfred Hitchcock movies and I wondered if the service men and women would enjoy them?

Cool!  I would!  LOL  Actually, I think many of these young people haven't had much exposure to the old movies and TV shows and being a "captured audience" over there, they might really enjoy something really different from their usualy fare...  I say, "Go for it!"

 

Debbie