On Aug 4, 2004, at 2:35, KR'sListMail wrote: [snip...] > Henri, > > You are very very wrong. > I pay my GDM, IT attorneys $250 an hour to keep me in the legal clear > on copyrights and licenses, and to also write my copyright contracts > for my projects with the studios. Are you saying, what they taught me > is wrong for the past decade is wrong, and that you know more than > they do > > Hacking passkeys, and copying DVD content or any media disk for that > matter, is not a sovereign "right", ethically or legally by ANY court > of law here or anywhere. Copying DVDs, is considered reverse > engineering and that it is considered stealing Intellectual Property.
Of course, in past times, the same friendly folks who decided that copying DVDs was theft also tried to make it illegal to tape radio shows for one's own personal use, to tape songs from LPs so that they could be mixed for parties, to tape LPs so that they could be heard in the car etc. Similar bizarre (il)logic makes for bizarre differences in intellectual property rights depending on whether the intellectual property is printed on a piece of paper or in a pdf file on a CD (example: If I write a book for teaching probability, then I get the royalties. If I assemble a CD for teaching probability, then the university can take most of the royalties). These same strange reverse engineering rules also are used to make it difficult to expose weaknesses in software. [An aside: Intellectual property rights vary by country, even amongst those countries who recognize intellectual property. If I recall correctly, in Germany, it is OK to make copies of entire books for educational purposes. Result: books which are only available as expensive hardbound books here are available legally as cheap paperbacks there. Shoot, it is cheaper for my students to order their (legal) textbooks from Britain than to get (legal) copies here in the US. All because of strange laws here.] > Plus, With DVDs the media itself is considered a canvas, not just a > media material, since the disk is painted with art, graphics, > trademarks, etc. This means the DVD plastics, the disk is an intrinsic > part of the work itself- like the oil paint applied to a canvas > painting. And with DVDs every disk is in essence be considered a > "Master Disk" or "Original". Ouch. > > So, Copying a DVD and distributing it to another- meaning, in real > life: like giving one copy to a friend, or worse, posting it online > for sharing to lots of people, IS considered "Distribution". That > means=Stealing not just once, but twice. Doing either of these things, > is a severe criminal act, is rated a felony- a criminal equivalent to > stealing a car. The problem with the way laws are written now, is that there is no distinction between 'making myself a copy' and 'making copies for everyone'. The former should be perfectly legal. The latter should not. > > Minumum jail time for felony? Is one year or more.... > [horrible painful punishment for offenders...] > Thinking like you are? This is so ethically and spiritually- wrong. I'm not sure that the ethics are so clear, when the companies who produce DVDs purposely make DVDs which can be bought, excuse me, 'licensed', in one country and then not played in another country, when there is rampant price-fixing, when prices are miserably inflated, etc. Now... two wrongs do not make a right, but I'm not sure that making copies for oneself or wanting to get a DVD in Germany which is unavailable in the US, and then watch the DVD in the US should be options available to the consumer. > > Remember the lady that asked this question, about copying DVDs in the > first place? Cathy? Rather than tell her to buy some hack machine > online from some offshore crook, maybe she should be advised to just > buy a used DVD disk for $10 at the corner video store, where-ever she > travels. That's what I do, and I am able to sleep at night, knowing I > have supported a few of my fellow artists in the entertainment > industry. That feels nice. Hmm... and how do you think that you are supporting the artist when buying a used DVD? The artist got the money fronted as an advance, and (possibly) got some royalties when the original DVD was sold. Buying a used copy only saves the landfill. This doesn't mean that buying a bootleg is better - it isn't - it merely means that you are not supporting an artist by buying a used CD or DVD. I think the whole issue is way more complicated than the view promoted by the current US laws. Bill -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 2373 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.math.louisville.edu/pipermail/macgroup/attachments/20040804/59dd1533/attachment.bin
