The Cellar - View Single Post - What are the legitimate functions of government?

01-01-2002, 01:30 AM

Copyright is definitely important, and I support it. I write software for a living - if other companies stole it and sold it, I'd have a hard time staying employed. However, software itself is a different issue. I support the government's right to make backup copies of the (hehe) tapes I deliver to them, because if they didn't, I could fuck them out of money to get another copy. If you buy a CD, be it of software or music, you own that CD. Maybe you don't have distribution rights to the contents, but you own that CD. If you want to break it in half, you should be allowed to (and I'm sure no one would dare write or sponsor a law that took that privilege away, heaven forbid you'd want to purchase another copy of their overpriced product). Conversely, if you want to make a backup copy of that CD, should you accidentally break it in half, irrecoverably scratch it or drop it in a river of molten lava, you should be able to. You bought the CD.

The same is true with DVDs, especially in my household, where they are frequently watched. I'm not paying for a license to watch that movie - I am paying for a DVD that happens to contain the movie I want to watch. Maybe I want to make sure I can watch that movie for a long time to come, so I rip it to my hard drive or make a backup DVD of it. This should be perfectly legal, but it is not. Circumventing the Content Scrambling System is illegal under the terms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. It's completely bogus, but it is illegal. You cannot play a DVD in a standard DVD player unless you have its region code and CSS, but those are in portions of the DVD that are uncopyable, as per the DVD standard. So, of course, if you make a backup copy of your movie, it's virtually useless, and therefore, not an actual backup - more like a hack copy. This is <b>unacceptable</b> - I have purchased some 120 DVDs. What if they are stolen? Am I supposed to eat that loss? That's what the MPAA hope, but that's not acceptable to me. I'd rather have copies, thank you very much, so that even if my DVDs are stolen, I can at least copy them. This is, of course, currently a crime, and one I could be jailed for.

I do not agree with "piracy" (nor do I agree with the practice of that word being used to describe "intellectual property theft"). The issue of IP theft itself is rather fuzzy - one is not actually stealing (as in, revoking the possession of) any property - they're simply copying it and possibly depriving one of revenues, which is also sketchy. But I digress. The fact of the matter is, if I write some really cool software and I decide to charge $100 for each copy of it, that should definitely be protected by copyright laws. But removing the right to make fair-use backups of such materials (as is currently illegal and impossible in the case of DVDs) is, I believe, a greater crime, because it deprives humanity of what I believe is an essential freedom - that to do what you wish with what you have purchased. I work hard so I can buy what I buy, and if I want to eBay it a day later or rip it to mp3 in iTunes, I damn well better be able to. I don't rent CDs - I buy them. Period.

01-01-2002, 01:30 AM	#17
dave Guest Posts: n/a	Copyright is definitely important, and I support it. I write software for a living - if other companies stole it and sold it, I'd have a hard time staying employed. However, software itself is a different issue. I support the government's right to make backup copies of the (hehe) tapes I deliver to them, because if they didn't, I could fuck them out of money to get another copy. If you buy a CD, be it of software or music, you own that CD. Maybe you don't have distribution rights to the contents, but you own that CD. If you want to break it in half, you should be allowed to (and I'm sure no one would dare write or sponsor a law that took that privilege away, heaven forbid you'd want to purchase another copy of their overpriced product). Conversely, if you want to make a backup copy of that CD, should you accidentally break it in half, irrecoverably scratch it or drop it in a river of molten lava, you should be able to. You bought the CD. The same is true with DVDs, especially in my household, where they are frequently watched. I'm not paying for a license to watch that movie - I am paying for a DVD that happens to contain the movie I want to watch. Maybe I want to make sure I can watch that movie for a long time to come, so I rip it to my hard drive or make a backup DVD of it. This should be perfectly legal, but it is not. Circumventing the Content Scrambling System is illegal under the terms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. It's completely bogus, but it is illegal. You cannot play a DVD in a standard DVD player unless you have its region code and CSS, but those are in portions of the DVD that are uncopyable, as per the DVD standard. So, of course, if you make a backup copy of your movie, it's virtually useless, and therefore, not an actual backup - more like a hack copy. This is <b>unacceptable</b> - I have purchased some 120 DVDs. What if they are stolen? Am I supposed to eat that loss? That's what the MPAA hope, but that's not acceptable to me. I'd rather have copies, thank you very much, so that even if my DVDs are stolen, I can at least copy them. This is, of course, currently a crime, and one I could be jailed for. I do not agree with "piracy" (nor do I agree with the practice of that word being used to describe "intellectual property theft"). The issue of IP theft itself is rather fuzzy - one is not actually stealing (as in, revoking the possession of) any property - they're simply copying it and possibly depriving one of revenues, which is also sketchy. But I digress. The fact of the matter is, if I write some really cool software and I decide to charge $100 for each copy of it, that should definitely be protected by copyright laws. But removing the right to make fair-use backups of such materials (as is currently illegal and impossible in the case of DVDs) is, I believe, a greater crime, because it deprives humanity of what I believe is an essential freedom - that to do what you wish with what you have purchased. I work hard so I can buy what I buy, and if I want to eBay it a day later or rip it to mp3 in iTunes, I damn well better be able to. I don't rent CDs - I buy them. Period.