Stefany has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I seek the wisdom of the wise monks,

I want to make a Perl CMD program that would rename subtitle files, currently downloaded in the series season directory, to their corresponding episodes' .avi files, so that users would have to no longer manually rename all subtitle files as their .avi counterparts in order the subtitles to be displayed automatically by the majority of Movie Players.

My question is, is it totally legal ? In a sense that, for example, sometimes when I buy series I download for them from the web Bulgarian subtitles that are not included in the subtitles' folder of the series, but in order for them to play automatically in my player, I would have to rename them to be the same name as the .avi parts.

Many thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Is this program I want to make legal?
by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 14, 2015 at 12:50 UTC

    I guess the answer will much more hinge on your local jurisdiction. I would ask a lawyer about this, if it is that important.

    If you want to explore this topic further, consider looking at reasons why your program might be legal and why your program mit not be legal, or in what situations use of your program might be legal and in which situations the use might be punishable. Then you should talk with a lawyer in your jurisdiction about those arguments and maybe find argumentation chains that have the outcome you want for your programs.

    You could argue that your script just renames arbitrary files to arbitrary names, without looking at the contents of the files and without knowledge of the legal status of such files. But I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

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Re: Is this program I want to make legal?
by CountZero (Bishop) on Sep 14, 2015 at 15:59 UTC
    I am a lawyer but probably not in your country, so my comments are by necessity rather general and should not be taken as a legal opinion you can rely upon. Speak to a local lawyer if the matter is important enough for you.

    When we only look into the narrow issue of renaming files, I do not think this is illegal except when the contract under which you have bought or downloaded the subtitles forbids you from doing so.

    Renaming the files and then selling (or even giving them away for free, even when you keep no copy for yourself) may be more of a problem as it may touch issues of copyright.

    Writing a program that renames the files will be no more illegal than the act of renaming the files itself and if you want to protect yourself against any claim, you can add something like this to your documentation:

    Before using this program you must make certain that renaming subtitle files is not illegal in your country. The author of this program makes no warranty whatsoever in that respect. User's discretion is advised.

    CountZero

    A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

    My blog: Imperial Deltronics
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Re: Is this program I want to make legal?
by kennethk (Abbot) on Sep 14, 2015 at 14:43 UTC
    Corion's points are all good and valid. And I am not a lawyer.

    If the script acts on your own server to rename files, I would be very surprised if that alone were illegal. However, if you then redistribute those files under the pretense that they are their counterparts, and especially if there's a profit motive, you are getting into fraud territory. Of course, that's not the script's responsibility.

    I'm still not a lawyer.

    #11929 First ask yourself `How would I do this without a computer?' Then have the computer do it the same way.

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Re: Is this program I want to make legal?
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Sep 14, 2015 at 14:43 UTC
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Re: Is this program I want to make legal?
by Discipulus (Canon) on Sep 15, 2015 at 07:44 UTC
    take it easy Stefany! you are just renaming a file, this does not harm no one, files on your own server. Generally speaking if you does not harm no one and you does no profit (profit in sense of money) no problem will arise.
    I think i have done worst think in my programming journey.

    L*
    There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
    Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.
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[d/l]
      And thanks to everyone as well! And for the record, I just ask because I want to upload this program to my github account and I worry people would think it is only used to renaming bad files, yeah it sounds kind of crazy now, lol.

      Thank you so much to everyone for the answers
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