I know that Warner Brothers & some other places have put out selected episodes of Lawman. Does anyone Own the rights to The Lawman or are they in the Public Domain? I know that for some old TV series, some episodes fall into the Public Domain, while others were registered & the rights to them are owned. I'm wondering if The Lawman is like that & that's why only a few episodes have been released.
shareTvShowsonDV says that the rights are owned/licensed by: Warner Bros. Home Video
so there you have it...so doubt it's in the public domain although I've seen people sell bootlegs. Maybe it's a case where they are too lazy to put the whole series, or are just putting out the new stuff while old classic stuff like this gets ignored.
"We have guided missiles and misguided men."
Two things to note. First, it's usually the case that only mediocre or worse shows from the '50s are in the public domain. Secondly, I still don't understand why so many people waste huge amounts of $ on DVDs when they can grab anything they want off of cable (even premium) and burn it to DVD if they just put a Macrovision copy protection filtering device upstream of their DVD recorder.
It's perfectly legal, according to the Fair Use Law that has been reaffirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, for a private citizen to record and keep *one* copy of anything for which they are paying for access. So if you're paying for cable and not stealing it, you're good to go w/a $125 Macrovision filtering device. (I have two of them, and they're constantly humming away in my livingroom.) Note: what is *not* legal is to make multiple copies of anything for sale or distribution. But one copy is O.K. for your library.
I buy blank DVDs in bulk on the Web at a cost of about 25 cents apiece, and now have about 3,000 of the best movies ever made, plus complete TV series going back to the '50s, including Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, I Love Lucy; as well as modern shows like Seinfeld, Friends, etc.
As for 'Lawman,' it's currently on Encore Westerns (I'm watching a TiVo recording of the premiere episode right now). I could capture every episode that airs, although I'm not particularly interested in preserving westerns on DVD, so I don't plan to. I'll just watch it every day.
You sound like I was when I got my first VCR. I recorded so many movies, tv shows, etc with the intention of watching them at a later date. So here it is over 20 years later and I still haven't watched some of them. I own vhs legally purchased copies of the Original Star Trek series and have watched all of them once with a few of them multiple times. Who would have foreseen they would be free over the Internet? Certainly not I!!
Who will watch all of your recorded stuff? In my case, my family didn't care for Star Trek so it was a solo enjoyment for me, nothing the family cared to participate in. It takes time to watch it and from what you describe of your collection it would take you a year or so of 24/7 watching to get through your collection.
Enjoy!!
I actually watch a lot of it already (e.g., episodes of Perry Mason, etc.); but I originally recorded most of it so I could watch it occasionally after I retire. It's good to have it around for a rainy afternoon when I can't go outside. I don't really like watching stuff on my computer on the Web when I can watch it from the comfort of my livingroom sofa on a larger screen with better sound. And not everything I like is always easily available and findable on the Web.
I have my library listings saved in an Excel spreadsheet, and all my DVDs are numbered; so I can just look for a particular movie or TV episode in my library (which I can sort alphabetically by movie or TV series title and TV episode title) and then quickly find the DVD and pop it into my DVD player. DVDs, if kept safe, can last about 100 years, unlike videotapes.
And if one has more than one DVD player in multiple rooms, then each family member can watch what they want.