It could be a barrier, but it's not something we can fix. These services use
digital restriction mechanisms, so we can't possibly read the video files
they send; they're encrypted. Even if we could come up with a way to read the
encrypted videos they send, it would be illegal for us to do so thanks to
laws like the DMCA. (The same is true of most video DVDs, by the way, whose
encryption scheme -- CSS -- has been cracked). And they would be able to
change the encryption almost instantly, making our efforts useless.
Personally, I think copyright should be abolished. The only good thing it
does these days is copyleft, and I think the good of copyleft is less than
the bad of other uses of copyright. (The FSF and RMS don't agree with me on
this, but they do think the duration of copyright should be substantially
shortened, which would also be helpful.)
Perhaps more urgently, digital restriction mechanisms ought to be illegal,
rather than legally enforced.
