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MPAA Countersues 321 Studios
Squash writes "321 Studios, makers of DVD X-Copy, is being Counter-sued by the MPAA. You may remember them filing suit to allow thier software to be produced and sold. Interesting point: the MPAA wants to claim all profits from sales of the software, which is now being bundled with some DVD burners."
All they have done is bundle applications that are free and from what I can tell the only programing that they have done themselfs is adding a front end.
The stolen software is as follows:
Smart Ripper
DVDx
VCD Easy/CD-Maker
PowerCDR
well I dont know how true this is *now* but back when dvd burners first came out ot the mass market I read that either the software or the hardware was incapable of doing the kind of content locking that the bigboys (MPAA) can put on thier content. Thus basically you make your own content, you cant (even tacitly) keep it from being pirated. I found this repugnant, the mpaa will spend tothe ends of the earth to destroy fair use, but (for whatever reason) what you do isnt important.
As we've all read a thousand times, this is no different than the movie studio's rabid reaction to the introduction of VCR's - a product that can duplicate video media and *might* be used for piracy.
This is the fight we've been waiting for: Fair Use vs. the DMCA. Only one will be left standing.
(So I'm being a little dramatic, sue me, I realize that the DMCA has a crapload of other stuff that will remain even if parts of it are struck down.)
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You are dead on here at the end. It isn't a problem of kill all corporations. Corporations are a good thing in some ways. So this isn't so much a problem with the system (though it could use some tweaking) but a *SOCIAL* problem. What we need is social change and to try to root out some of the greed in corporations. We need to find a way for corporations to exist but that the little guys get taken care of.
What we have lost is a sense of honor and selflessness in corporate culture. It has become about money and nothing more, and that is why we have this situation we have today. A corporation founded only on making money is likely to be a bad one. A corporation which is started to work toward a dream or a goal (other than simply making money) is likely to be a good company that people like. Take Jobs and Wozniak for example, they had a dream of a computer in every home. But eventually a company ends up in the hands of the greedy, or those who start it end up that way. What we need is to build into our social norms a way to recognize this and replace such individuals with those who again are aiming as much at a goal or dream as they are at simply squeezing every last dime out of consumers. More progress will be made that way at less human cost.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
I have read through slashdot that when you buy a DVD, you arent really buying the Digital Media, but license to view that Digital Media. This brings up the question of that basic right to re-sell something which you have purchased, or so I'm told.
... ... however, if instead..." and bring about a total intellectual anarchy and new age of perversion.
Anyway, the idea comes from that ROM-trading system mentioned a month or two ago. The idea behind that was: people have actual media, and in order to trade it, they send people the files, during which time their media can't be used- just like trading with someone who lives by you, only without the lives by you part.
So I figure if what I own when buying a DVD isnt media, but a license, why not rent out that license instead?
So here's the proposal: Buy a DVD, put it on a shelf, keep track of how long you spend Not watching the movie.
Then rent out the license for the time you arent using it.
If a DVD is a license, not media, you don't have to worry about where the physical media is in order to use the license. If I buy a DVD, go on a trip out of state, and download a rip of the DVD to watch while I'm gone, it's just as legal as making a copy of a movie on VHS and taking that with you on a trip- everything's fine as long as no one is watching that other copy at the same time. Rights are intangable, so your Rights stay with you wherever you go. Rights also dont need to stay in touch with the rest of the world's time. If I'm licensed to see 30 minutes of a slug beating a mormon to death with a petrified woodpecker, I can watch 10 minutes now, 10 minutes later, and save that extra 10 minutes for a friend of mine whom I wish to torment.
DVD's, though, have no time limit. You could put one in your drive now and keep the thing spinning until the drive wears out or the disc disintegrates beyond readability. Fortunatly though, if either of those happen, you're still allowed to watch the movie: a DVD is a license, not a media.
So, there's no time limit, Rights stay with you wherever you go, and rights dont have to follow time in a straight line.
Plenty of people have DVDs which have been sitting on their shelves unwatched for months. That could have been 720 showings of the movie, all of which remain unseen. What happens to those showings? Well, you're licensed to have viewed them whether you did or not, why not sell them?
License Rental can enable thousands of otherwise ilegal viewings to become legit, all at an affordable price. And there's really no drawbacks.
Before commenting on anything I just said, please note that I am aware that I am not familiar with the subject matter I am typing about. I really couldnt give a shit whether anything I said was true or not. The post was meant only to get people thinking. Whether those thoughts are intelligent or not is up to the person doing the thinking. I dont care if they are, the real point is for someone to look at this and go "That's completely wrong.
You may have noticed the actual topic of this post ended abruptly. I wish to assure you that this was because I stopped typing on the subject.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All