Fair use "rights" are only limitations to the legal powers granted to the record companies. They have nothing to do with what the companies can and cannot do with their own property outside the legislative sphere. The copy protection stuff is outside the law, so it is not and should not be governed by fair use laws.
It is actually legislation (DMCA) that got us into this situation. More laws would just make this situation worse. Ok, today the government would only be regulating certain hated record companies, but experience tells us that government action rarely confines itself to what we originally intended it for. Tomorrow, the power we gave to the politicians will be used for something that hurts us; just look at the DMCA and UCITA for perfect examples. The fact is that corporations have more resources and political clout with which to subvert the law than we do, so increases in government power always benefit such entities. We can clearly see this trend developing as government has become bigger and bigger in America.
We hate it when corporations corrupt the law, and rightly so, because we've seen what can happen. But why is it any more right for us to control the law? And even if it were morally right, would it do what we intend in the long run?
History tells us that the answers are "no" and "no" respectively.
You've then got the moral problem of whether you can force companies to do stuff with their property that they don't want to do. If they sponsor a record or show, then they should have property rights over what they have created, and if you don't like what they do with their rights, then tough! You'd hate it if someone told you what you could and could not do with your property, so why should we have the right to tell the record companies what they can and can't do with theirs?
Experience tells us that the record companies learn best from pain. The way to fix this is to vote with your feet. Don't buy copy protected stuff, don't buy hard drives with the copy protection code on. We shouldn't deal with this by expansions of the power of politicians, which may benefit us today but might choke us tomorrow.
If you want to effect change in government, try and get the DMCA repealed. Show the politicians that the DMCA undermines fair use rights, and that as such it is unconstitutional. Remember that fair use rights are intended to limit the power granted to copyright holders. The DMCA totally goes against that. Destroy the DMCA, and you destroy most of this mess. The record companies will then find that they cannot sustain their tactics. They've tried it before, with video and dual cassette recorders. They'll be just as unsuccessful this time, if the law doesn't help them.
We want less government in this situation, not more.
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It is actually legislation (DMCA) that got us into this situation. More laws would just make this situation worse. Ok, today the government would only be regulating certain hated record companies, but experience tells us that government action rarely confines itself to what we originally intended it for. Tomorrow, the power we gave to the politicians will be used for something that hurts us; just look at the DMCA and UCITA for perfect examples. The fact is that corporations have more resources and political clout with which to subvert the law than we do, so increases in government power always benefit such entities. We can clearly see this trend developing as government has become bigger and bigger in America.
We hate it when corporations corrupt the law, and rightly so, because we've seen what can happen. But why is it any more right for us to control the law? And even if it were morally right, would it do what we intend in the long run?
History tells us that the answers are "no" and "no" respectively.
You've then got the moral problem of whether you can force companies to do stuff with their property that they don't want to do. If they sponsor a record or show, then they should have property rights over what they have created, and if you don't like what they do with their rights, then tough! You'd hate it if someone told you what you could and could not do with your property, so why should we have the right to tell the record companies what they can and can't do with theirs?
Experience tells us that the record companies learn best from pain. The way to fix this is to vote with your feet. Don't buy copy protected stuff, don't buy hard drives with the copy protection code on. We shouldn't deal with this by expansions of the power of politicians, which may benefit us today but might choke us tomorrow.
If you want to effect change in government, try and get the DMCA repealed. Show the politicians that the DMCA undermines fair use rights, and that as such it is unconstitutional. Remember that fair use rights are intended to limit the power granted to copyright holders. The DMCA totally goes against that. Destroy the DMCA, and you destroy most of this mess. The record companies will then find that they cannot sustain their tactics. They've tried it before, with video and dual cassette recorders. They'll be just as unsuccessful this time, if the law doesn't help them.
We want less government in this situation, not more.