I think that I should be able to buy a DVD and watch it anywhere and on any system that I want. Why don’t the movie studios agree with this?
On Sundays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Today’s comments are actually in support of Glenn Fleishman’s commentary on BoingBoing where he railed against the recent lawsuit settlement by Real Networks. If you want straight news about this, follow this link to the 310 stories about it on Google News. Here is the story that I liked:
BoingBoing- When RealNetworks Settled on DVD Copying, We All Lost by Glenn Fleishman
“It’s unlikely that any other firm with the resources to challenge the media industry will release software or hardware that would allow DVD conversion in a manner that a court could find legal. Real was the last, great hope, because any other similar firm already has multi-million to multi-billion-dollar deals in play. Apple, Microsoft, and others aren’t going to release anything that jeopardizes how they work with giant copyright holders.
That leads to the conclusion that in order to make legal copies, you are obliged to be a pirate. Media companies’ failure to accommodate the notion that people may have legitimate purposes for making digital copies for their own use dooms them to eternal piracy.”
The issue is so simple that it is crazy, but yet remains the third rail of consumer entertainment. Copyrighted movies are currently distributed in fashions that restrict them to their physical packaging vice as pure content. What I mean is that the entertainment industry wants you to buy a DVD and only be able to play it on a certified DVD player. You are not buying the movie’s bits, but rather the right to watch it on one DVD player at a time and only in that format. I want to be able to watch the movie, not the disc, wherever and whenever I want. I want to be able to see that movie on my iPhone, my laptop, my DVD player, and my portable media player and not be constrained to the physical disc. I really want to make sure that I will be able to watch it on tomorrow’s systems, too, without buying another copy of the movie. This is the concept of “fair use”. It is not about piracy and not about profit. I don’t want to make multiple copies and I don’t want to sell copies. I just want to watch DVDs on my iPhone.
The problem with the issue is that it is masked in false pretenses. The entertainment industry wants you to believe that it is all about piracy and copyright, but the scenarios that I described above do not in any way, shape, or form infringe on the rights of the creators, nor their profit from the sale of the movie. The industry are not being fair brokers here because – they have a vested interest in you buying a new copy of the same movie every time that they decide to change the format. They liked how we all bought Star Wars on VHS, then DVD, soon Blu-Ray, and eventually in an online streaming format. They are not protecting creator’s rights and stopping pirates – they are protecting their own ability to make you buy multiple copies forever.
I want the concept of fair use to get its day in court. I want it to happen when the defense has the resources to not be out-spent by the other party. I want a real judge and/or jury to make the call and not just the size of each side’s bank account. I thought that Real had a chance to do that… but they gave up.
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 14, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Wired.com
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News Commentary: Saying Goodbye to Fair Use
I think that I should be able to buy a DVD and watch it anywhere and on any system that I want. Why don’t the movie studios agree with this?
On Sundays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Today’s comments are actually in support of Glenn Fleishman’s commentary on BoingBoing where he railed against the recent lawsuit settlement by Real Networks. If you want straight news about this, follow this link to the 310 stories about it on Google News. Here is the story that I liked:
BoingBoing- When RealNetworks Settled on DVD Copying, We All Lost by Glenn Fleishman
The issue is so simple that it is crazy, but yet remains the third rail of consumer entertainment. Copyrighted movies are currently distributed in fashions that restrict them to their physical packaging vice as pure content. What I mean is that the entertainment industry wants you to buy a DVD and only be able to play it on a certified DVD player. You are not buying the movie’s bits, but rather the right to watch it on one DVD player at a time and only in that format. I want to be able to watch the movie, not the disc, wherever and whenever I want. I want to be able to see that movie on my iPhone, my laptop, my DVD player, and my portable media player and not be constrained to the physical disc. I really want to make sure that I will be able to watch it on tomorrow’s systems, too, without buying another copy of the movie. This is the concept of “fair use”. It is not about piracy and not about profit. I don’t want to make multiple copies and I don’t want to sell copies. I just want to watch DVDs on my iPhone.
The problem with the issue is that it is masked in false pretenses. The entertainment industry wants you to believe that it is all about piracy and copyright, but the scenarios that I described above do not in any way, shape, or form infringe on the rights of the creators, nor their profit from the sale of the movie. The industry are not being fair brokers here because – they have a vested interest in you buying a new copy of the same movie every time that they decide to change the format. They liked how we all bought Star Wars on VHS, then DVD, soon Blu-Ray, and eventually in an online streaming format. They are not protecting creator’s rights and stopping pirates – they are protecting their own ability to make you buy multiple copies forever.
I want the concept of fair use to get its day in court. I want it to happen when the defense has the resources to not be out-spent by the other party. I want a real judge and/or jury to make the call and not just the size of each side’s bank account. I thought that Real had a chance to do that… but they gave up.
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 14, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Wired.com
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
This entry was posted by Scott Coughlin on March 14, 2010 at 8:08 am, and is filed under Business of IT, Hardware, Information Age, Information Technology, News Commentary. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.