September 19, 2005 5:57 AM PDT
Hollywood studios unite in piracy battle
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The New York Times
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9 comments
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This is the deal as far as I'm concerned.
The movie studios own the content, and it's up to them what price they sell it for.
However the paying consumer is the one who finances this content, usually several times over - movies, dvd, rentals, tv subscription, pay for view, etc.
If you restrict the consumer too much, and a convenient way of breaking that restriction becomes available, the consumer will take that convenience and having paid for the content not feel morally wrong in doing so.
I do not appreciate that at the front of every movie I purchase there is a thinly disguised threat that if I decide to backup the content I've purchased, the movie industry will try to get me sent to jail. "even if this product is copied with no monetary gain" is the term used.
DVD sales are the biggest revenue source of all movie studios, often making box office rejects a successful product.
Sure people are stealing movies, but the ones who actually pay for them are the ones threatened by the legal speak at the front of every movie.
The oscar copy distributers (by far the largest source of illegal content, which is ironic because these illegal copies come from the industry itself) and the camcorder copiers clearly understand they are in the wrong - but the studios feel it is necessary to threaten their own customers with $250,000 fines and 5 years in jail just for backing up the movie they probably paid to see in the cinema, maybe rented from the video store, and eventually paid for their own copy on DVD. That doesn't include the movie channel subscriptions, video on demand, pay for view, legitimate movie downloads or network tv royalties.
So as far as I'm concerned any form of region coding is illegal - we're supposed to have a free market economy and the USA and Europe are bound to trade agreements that ban protectionism, i.e. preventing consumers from purchasing products from whatever country they choose to.
Also no legitimate way to back up a movie is against the DMCA, as it clearly states there should be fair use rights for libraries, schools, etc and copy protections currently in place prevent these fair use rights.
This is the deal as far as I'm concerned.
The movie studios own the content, and it's up to them what price they sell it for.
However the paying consumer is the one who finances this content, usually several times over - movies, dvd, rentals, tv subscription, pay for view, etc.
If you restrict the consumer too much, and a convenient way of breaking that restriction becomes available, the consumer will take that convenience and having paid for the content not feel morally wrong in doing so.
I do not appreciate that at the front of every movie I purchase there is a thinly disguised threat that if I decide to backup the content I've purchased, the movie industry will try to get me sent to jail. "even if this product is copied with no monetary gain" is the term used.
DVD sales are the biggest revenue source of all movie studios, often making box office rejects a successful product.
Sure people are stealing movies, but the ones who actually pay for them are the ones threatened by the legal speak at the front of every movie.
The oscar copy distributers (by far the largest source of illegal content, which is ironic because these illegal copies come from the industry itself) and the camcorder copiers clearly understand they are in the wrong - but the studios feel it is necessary to threaten their own customers with $250,000 fines and 5 years in jail just for backing up the movie they probably paid to see in the cinema, maybe rented from the video store, and eventually paid for their own copy on DVD. That doesn't include the movie channel subscriptions, video on demand, pay for view, legitimate movie downloads or network tv royalties.
So as far as I'm concerned any form of region coding is illegal - we're supposed to have a free market economy and the USA and Europe are bound to trade agreements that ban protectionism, i.e. preventing consumers from purchasing products from whatever country they choose to.
Also no legitimate way to back up a movie is against the DMCA, as it clearly states there should be fair use rights for libraries, schools, etc and copy protections currently in place prevent these fair use rights.
This is the deal as far as I'm concerned.
The movie studios own the content, and it's up to them what price they sell it for.
However the paying consumer is the one who finances this content, usually several times over - movies, dvd, rentals, tv subscription, pay for view, etc.
If you restrict the consumer too much, and a convenient way of breaking that restriction becomes available, the consumer will take that convenience and having paid for the content not feel morally wrong in doing so.
I do not appreciate that at the front of every movie I purchase there is a thinly disguised threat that if I decide to backup the content I've purchased, the movie industry will try to get me sent to jail. "even if this product is copied with no monetary gain" is the term used.
DVD sales are the biggest revenue source of all movie studios, often making box office rejects a successful product.
Sure people are stealing movies, but the ones who actually pay for them are the ones threatened by the legal speak at the front of every movie.
The oscar copy distributers (by far the largest source of illegal content, which is ironic because these illegal copies come from the industry itself) and the camcorder copiers clearly understand they are in the wrong - but the studios feel it is necessary to threaten their own customers with $250,000 fines and 5 years in jail just for backing up the movie they probably paid to see in the cinema, maybe rented from the video store, and eventually paid for their own copy on DVD. That doesn't include the movie channel subscriptions, video on demand, pay for view, legitimate movie downloads or network tv royalties.
So as far as I'm concerned any form of region coding is illegal - we're supposed to have a free market economy and the USA and Europe are bound to trade agreements that ban protectionism, i.e. preventing consumers from purchasing products from whatever country they choose to.
Also no legitimate way to back up a movie is against the DMCA, as it clearly states there should be fair use rights for libraries, schools, etc and copy protections currently in place prevent these fair use rights.