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Adam Bresson Demonstrates Fair Use at DefCon
nigelc writes: "Adam Bresson showed how to make copies of copyright-protected videos in a speech at DefCon. To quote the article, 'I hope he's got a lawyer and that they talked to somebody'" From the article, it sounds like Bresson simply used a video conversion box to defeat MacroVision -- something my notorious criminal father has been doing for years.
The question is, wether or not this satisfies fair use. If you can make a low-quality analog copy of a digital work, is the law not still guaranteeing you the right to use the work fairly in it's original - digital - format?
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Being innovative and unique gets you thrown in jail.
Big business does not want independant thinkers, just a mass of sheeple, and when one of those sheeple jump to a higher valence, Big Business and Government is waiting to smack him down.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
god that is so stupid. With the lack of any TRUE infringments on freedom (see Revolutionary War) todays generation has nothing better to do than whine about companies not including vcd support as evidence that the US is not free. WHAT BULL.
Don't buy their DVD player, how about that? no one's making you. You can buy one that supports playing vcd, they exist! Hell, you could even start your own company to supply such a product, because demand is clearly high, you could become rich by doing this too! Rich and in the moral highground, way to go !! Or you could start a petition, again, because vcd is so overwhelmingly popular. Or you could do the lazy crap thing to do--whine about it on slashdot.
Since the copyright laws specify you're paying for the CONTENT not the MEDIUM it is stored on, it makes perfect sense to ensure the content you've paid for will remain in your posession even if the storage medium fails for some reason.
You get another bag at the grocery store if the first bag rips on the way out, right? Or would you leave the groceries on the sidewalk? Of course not. You've already paid for them.
Now imagine if the store told you you'd have to pay for the groceries again in order to get a new bag.
Same thing as when a record store asks you to pay full price for a replacement cd.
-- This sig for rent.
I know this is a troll, but there are plenty of legit reasons to copy copyrighted works:
1. For public reviews of the work.
2. To excerpt for purposes of commentary or analysis
3. To make personal backups
4. To take selections for artistic re-use (video montage, looping bits for music, etc.)
etc.
5. For viewing/listening in alternate formats (video jukebox, ipod, etc.)
and many more.
You obviously DON'T have a 2 year old son that likes to "HACK" his way into the DVD cabinet....
Further, you purchased a movie. The DVD/VCR tape is simply the medium upon which the movie is stored. A vehicle is a very poor analogy.
I would personally LOVE to be able to copy my DVD's and keep ONLY the copies accessible. The original Master copies would only come out when needed to re-copy a destroyed backup/use copy.
The point is not whether YOU have a need/want to copy your DVD's... The point is that we the people (in the U.S. at least), are losing our established rights to corporate greed steering a corrupt government, unchallenged by an apathetic populace.
>> If the RIAA had owned the buggy industry in 1900, I think we'd all still be whipping our horses to get to work in the morning.
Or if a few (say 5 or so) large companies owned the automobile business, we'd still be driving to work in 2002...
Renting a movie implies driving off campus, finding a video store, renting the movie, and returning it in a timely fashion.
Problem 1: No car.
Problem 2: No video rental stores within 5 miles.
Purchasing DVD's is not out of the question, but buying more than a few a year stresses my budget. I did buy Oceans 11 and Lock Stock...Since I wore out my HD watching them on divx.
Problem 1: Students' incomes are quite low, and not continuous all year long.
Problem 2: I need to buy books. Textbooks are expensive.
Problem 3: 10 DVDs * $20 each = $200. 200 bucks is a large percentage (don't laugh) of my annual income.
Since the advent of CD's, I have only bought about 3. These CD's were compilations, since most artists don't have an entire CD of great songs. It's not that I enjoy downloading mp3s, but there is no way in hell i will pay $20 for a little plastic disc with 2 decent songs on it.
As mentioned in another comment, paying for a service to deliver high quality music to my desktop is not out of the question.
It needs to be always on, and able to stream at 50kb/sec.
Make it known that you can have any song, anywhere, anytime, and people will pay for this service. I know I would.
Availablity and price are the two things killing the music and movie industry today. Provide a low cost, easily accessable way to watch movies and listen to music, make it easier and faster than current P2P, and your industry will start raking in money.
This would never work because all of the recording and motion picture industries stances are based on contradictions and they are not likely to give those up.
Your purchase of a video or album gives you a license to the material. But if the media is damaged, you have no recoruse but to buy ANOTHER license to the SAME material.
The industries blow hot steam about copying and how much they lose to copying. Yet they collect a "royalty" on the sale of blank media, regardless of what the purcahser uses that media for. They receive payment for the sale of a product that they had absolutely NO connection to AT ALL. Its free money to them.
Hell, piracy is economically BETTER for the recording industry. If they sell fewer CDs and pay the artists LESS but make up the difference in the "tax" they collect on blank media sales.
You have a choice. Pay for the movies, or pay for the books - but don't pretend that being short on cash makes it OK to watch rips off the net. It's still wrong.
Problem 1: Students' incomes are quite low, and not continuous all year long.
Problem 2: I need to buy books. Textbooks are expensive.
Problem 3: 10 DVDs * $20 each = $200. 200 bucks is a large percentage (don't laugh) of my annual income.
$200 is a large percentage of your income? That's BS. It's a good thing you can play DVDs on your $5 computer. It's also lucky that you can leech free electricty from the building next to the cardboard box where you live. And you must be getting one hell of an education with the other $200.
Clearly $200 is only a large part of your disposable income. Someone (most likely your parents) is paying for your expensive education (unless you're stealing that too). Why don't you quit whining and ask them to buy you some DVDs for Christmas? And while you're at it, ask for a raise in your allowance.
-a
How to rationalize theft.