What can I do that isn't illegal?

Unless you’re doing a full scope nobody will care. Even then it’s highly doubtful.

pro tip: if you do not read the ToS, you also can't lie about if you are breaking them or not

I cannot rip DVDs

In the US, this is legal:

"This means that you can legally rip a DVD for personal use, as long as you don't violate any of the other copyright laws. What does this mean in practice? You can rip a DVD for your own personal use, but you can't distribute the ripped file to others. You also can't make a copy of the ripped file for someone else."

https://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/is-it-legal-to-rip-dvd.html

you can manually find which movies are out of their copyright period and are free to download, but you'll only be watching 50s/early 2000s romcoms if you do that

> so I cannot rip DVDs, I cannot capture streams

Would any government job with a serious enough mission to require polygraphs and security clearances actually care about this kind of kindergarten illegality.

Seems like the digital equivalent of jaywalking or rolling a stop sign. Are they also going to check up and make sure you have never burned a CD in your life, or shared a Netflix password?

Polygraph don't measure truth. They measure your nerves. If you are nervous about obfuscating your piracy it would show up on the graph

Media shifting is fair use.

For 20 + years in my misspent youth, I had a TS-SCI clearance.

I would suggest avoiding the grey area early on in your career. The investigators are going to be much more interested in discussions about circumventing laws rather than minor crimes such as copyright violations especially if you stumble and hesitate while talking about it.

Once you get the clearance, you are going to be completely amazed at the commonly known, but let's pretend it didn't happen, stuff that people with clearances actually do.

The government has often spent 100,000's if not millions of dollars, training people with high-level clearance. They are not going to throw all that away for a ripped DVD. Plus, people with clearance often know where the skeletons are for other people with clearances.

Nine out of ten times, if someone finds out you did a fireable offense they are not going to do anything about it. They are going to tuck that information in their pocket and use it as leverage to make sure that next time some shit rolls downhill, you will do your best to make sure none of it sticks to them.

Why is ripping a DVD an unauthorized reproduction if ripping a CD isn't?

Even a full scope, they don't give a shit about ripping DVDs or torrenting. They want to know if you're a druggie, gay, or terrorist/spy...

Unless money is extremely tight or this is your ultimate dream job, I'd keep looking for other work.

Just don't distribute anything.

How would anybody ever find out if you are locally ripping dvds and why would that even be considered a crime? And if it is… who is the victim.

Polygraphs are junk science and do not work.

What country is this? No one cares this much except North Korea and i dont think you would be posting on Reddit if your worried about a little piracy.

FYI, polygraph tests don’t work. they’re a pseudoscience.

I actually don't think it matters if you do anything illegal. That's seriously hazardous advice at face value but consider the case of Edward Snowden. He omitted his white hat hacking escapades as a youth - though he reported his vulnerability findings to the relevant agency during the time of his indescretions. Consequently, he had little to hide.

Even then, he obtained a Top Secret clearance and passed the polygraph with flying colors. He is now a futitive - marked as an enemy of the state. While he is a proud American, and I consider him a hero, he lives in Russia where he was forcibly exiled and cannot get return to the states. Even then - he didn't end up there because he lied on a polygraph.

Remember the 11th Commandment: Thou Shall Not Get Caught.

Ripping DVDs for personal consumption should count as fair use, no?

So, the government job does not pay well enough so you can pay for Netflix & Disney+ or why do you want to host our own movie streaming?

Honestly? The government is not going to care unless you get caught. Had you been caught before, you would not have received government clearance. You are literally in the same position you've always been: getting caught means no government clearance (only difference is you would lose it now as opposed to being barred from ever receiving it had you been caught before).

AFAIK, you MAY rip your legally purchased media for backup purposes. So backup your DVDs and DONT expose those copies to the public internet. Even if you did and you were investigated all you would have to do is show them the physical copies; how would they know which you used for viewing?

Ask a friend to hold onto your disks.

Then you can say truthfully, if asked, I used to rip CDs, DVDs and bluray, but I don't have this material any more, I just stream legitimate content off Amazon/Netflix etc.

But you need to learn how to fool polygraph tests because you'll still have a "tell"

Polygraph tests are notoriously poopy. They aren't even admissible in court.

I don't know what country you live in, but I have worked on multiple gov contracts (software development in the USA) and have never been asked to take a polygraph. It was eye opening to find out that deep down, they really don't care about what each individual is doing (unless you mess with their data). That being said, what you are asking is really hard to do without dancing on the line of whats "legal" and whats not. You'll have to decide where you draw the line and host what you can. Nobody can force you to admit to crimes (at least if you live in the west).

So you want to be one of the 5% of honest government employees...

The country matters here. Though overall, isn't it distributing it what constitutes as the piracy part rather than just ripping something? As far as I am aware, ripping a disk for personal consumption (so long as nobody gets access to your library) should be no different from backing up media that you won.

polygraph tests are not real. keep pirating sailor 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🦜🦜🦜 ARRR!