united-states copyright intellectual-property internet encryption
Is it legal to upload encrypted copyrighted content to the Internet?
<p>Say I own a digital copy of a copyrighted movie. Is it legal for me to encrypt it with say, AES, and share it to the Internet so anyone could download the encrypted copy?</p>
<p>It actually breaks down to these 4 situations:</p>
<ol>
<li>Is it legal if I don't share the decryption key to anyone?</li>
<li>Is it legal if I share the decryption key privately to someone who also owns the same copy?</li>
<li>Is it legal if I share the decryption key privately to someone who doesn't own the copy?</li>
<li>Is it legal if I share the decryption key publicly online?</li>
</ol>
<p>If in any of the above situations it is not legal, which party/parties is/are liable?</p>
<p>Edit: Additional question: How does the above 4 situations apply to the content that is not owned by you, say a video &quot;illegally&quot; downloaded from YouTube.</p>

<p>An encrypted copy is still a copy. Making and distributing copies of a protected work without permission is infringement under US copyright law unless fair use or another exception to copyright applies.</p>
<ul>
<li>Making a copy for the purpose of time-shifting, that is watching or listening at a more convenient time has been held to be fair use.</li>
<li>Making a copy as a backup to a lawfully owned physical medium  in case of damage to or loss of the medium has been held to be fair use.</li>
<li>Making a purely personal copy (from a lawfully held copy) <strong>may</strong> be a fair use.</li>
<li>Making a copy  (from a lawfully held copy) to share with a strictly limited group <strong>may</strong> be a fair use. If the group is a single household, it is fair use.</li>
</ul>
<p>I don't know of other situations which are probably fair use and fit this question at all. But fair use is an intentionally flexible concept, so I cannot say that no other situation would be fair use.</p>
