Is it copyright violation that downloading pirated movies on the Internet for learning purposes?

[Mubuer]

In order to learn the technology in the film, such as shooting techniques, movie sets, light and so on, somebody will download some film by illegal downloading.
Sometimes, they will use some clips of some films to do a video sample. These samples just for reference, will not be published and only for the non-commercial purpose.

Can these ways be considered as "Fair use"?

[Halie0201]

It's an interesting question and I have the same confusion.

As far as I know, according to the clause 29 Research and private study
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/29

(1)Fair dealing with a F2... work for the purposes of research for a non-commercial purpose does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement.]
[F3(1B)No acknowledgement is required in connection with fair dealing for the purposes mentioned in subsection (1) where this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise.
(1C)Fair dealing with a F4... work for the purposes of private study does not infringe any copyright in the work.]

It seems that if you download a copy of the illegal movie for your own personal and private study(either for learning the technology or editing a sample for exercising), it should be fine. But there is an exception:

(b)in any other case, the person doing the copying knows or has reason to believe that it will result in copies of substantially the same material being provided to more than one person at substantially the same time and for substantially the same purpose.

I figured that if you download it and spread it to others, like your co-workers or classmates, you will be in trouble if you are caught.

But it comes to me another question:
If this true that it's okay to download an illegal copy from the internet for private study, then the sellers of the tutorials and textbooks will be not happy. So I am not sure if it's true. So Maybe AndyJ can help:)

[AndyJ]

Hi Mubuer and Halie,

Yes, Halie's analysis is largely correct. So long as you only need to copy something for the purposes of private study, and the amount you take take is not excessive then it doesn't matter whether the source is actually hosting the original content legally or illegally. This has been confirmed by a recent judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, known as GS Media. Excessive copying would go beyond fair dealing, and so that is why copying a whole text book would not be covered by the exception, but a few pages probably would (see also section 42A).

Mubuer also mentioned using extracts as an aid to learning. If this was done in a formal educational establishment, there are other exceptions which can be be applied. See sections 32 to 36A for more details.