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AstroDroid
06-15-2004, 11:57 PM
I've been thinking this ever since my copies of Lord of the Rings extended editions have gotten scratched up from overuse. Some chapters have become unviewable unfortunately, which got me to thinking about the copyright on it.

They sold me the copyright on their movies, Do they control the medium on which I view the movie? And even if they do, shouldn't the medium be guaranteed for a certain length of time. And once sold if my medium is defective, shouldn't I be enititled as an licensee of the copyright to a copy of the material on the medium I purcased it on for a minimal fee? Shouldn't I have a way to make a useable backup copy of the disk to use so that I can keep the original in good condition? If they are so worried about the securtiy and venrability of their products to copying, why have they not come up with a way to make the backup copy for myself, sell it to me and thereby make even more money. Or have someplace I can re-order the discs from for a nominal fee? Why don't they create the technology to put the dvd on my hard drive so I can leave the disks at home while I travel around. Seems like lost revenue for them.

In order to fix my dvd I have to take it to a specialty shop that does that kind of thing, or purchase an entire new copy of the dvds. Which now I will now own 2 copyrights to the material.

What gets me is that the copyright owners (you know who they are) are saying they loose so much money per year on pirated software, however they have no way to verify that every copyright that they have sold is actually still owned and in usable condition by those people who have it. Think of all the records that were made and sold, then people bought tapes, then they purchased cd's. Someone tell me that every copyright that is sold doesn't amount to more than the number of people who use the copyrighted material.

The copyrighters don't have you sign your name as a licensee of the material and that it's non-transferable, etc. They don't have a clue about who actually owns their products. So here I am, I used to own a copy of a song 20 years ago, I head to Kazaa and download the same song to my hard drive. How do they know that I don't own a copyright to the song? I have no proof because I trashed the record years ago. The receipts are long gone.

At least in the software world they try to keep track. They assign you a license number, and sometimes you have to call in to enable the product. Most places will send you another disk for a small fee. Besides, who uses the original disks in a workplace environment, all of the disks are copies and the originals are stored safely away so that when the copies go bad, a new copy can be made and work can continue.

I feel I've vented enough. This has likely all been gone over in courts and probably in this forum, but now I feel better, especially with the thought of suing the copyrighters for selling me defective products that don't hold up to normal wear and tear.

hlrguy
06-16-2004, 01:07 AM
I feel for ya, but all those starving execs at the MPAA need to eat too. Personally, I don't buy DVDs. When they cost 2X the price of a rental, then I might start. They are basically a rip off. I do have one DVD I got as a gift, but don't have a DVD burner. If I did, I wouldn't think twice about backing it up. I would really like to see them come after a regular user that backed up DVDs for their own personal backup. This law would be passed in a heartbeat.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119414,00.html

Of course, with Linux, how would they ever know, spyware and other tracking uses of software don't exist in Linux. :-)

It is all about the almighty $, squeeze every penny out of every person they can. They don't care about the consumer, they WANT DVDs to fail, CDs to get scratched, and they want lawmakers and software makers, through threats, bribes and subterfuge to help them in their quest. I await the day they try to pass a law forcing me to yearly renew my 'subscription' to my CDs because I am not purchasing enough of the new crap they put out.

I vote against them with my wallet, I don't buy DVDs, and haven't purchased more than a few CDs in the past few years. (CDs are a two pronged story, 1-they are too expensive and 2-the RIAA has virtually killed good music with the mainstream formularized largely untalented artists/groups who use sex appeal as opposed to talent to sell their music).

hlrguy

Gogeta_44
06-16-2004, 02:25 AM
Since they stopped legal file sharing I have yet to buy a single music cd...

Icarus
06-16-2004, 07:07 AM
Originally posted by hlrguy
When they cost 2X the price of a rental, then I might start. They are basically a rip off. You must not have been to Blockbuster recently...

To purchase "This is SpinalTap" $9.99
To rent "This is SpinalTap" $4.99

Older DVDs are well worth it to purchase. Even new ones at ~$17.99 is not a bad price really, considering it (around here) costs $8+ to see a new release movie at the theaters.

Everything is over inflaited in price, so you should work hard and get yourself a well paying job to pay for all this stuff that is available to us!

You're saving money on your OS by using Linux ;)

Pafnoutios
06-16-2004, 08:18 AM
Originally posted by hlrguy
the RIAA has virtually killed good music with the mainstream formularized largely untalented artists/groups who use sex appeal as opposed to talent to sell their music).

hlrguy

That's why MTV is better with the sound off.

hlrguy
06-16-2004, 09:52 AM
Originally posted by Icarus
You must not have been to Blockbuster recently...
To purchase "This is SpinalTap" $9.99
To rent "This is SpinalTap" $4.99


I agree, these prices are pretty good, but the few times I have thought about it, I inspect the DVD and there are always abundant scratches on them. I sometimes wonder if most people who rent and use DVDs only handle them with sharp kitchen utentsils. :D

hlrguy

Icarus
06-16-2004, 10:31 AM
I was comparing rentals to new prices (I saw "This is SpinalTap" at Borders over the weekend for $9.99)
I feel Blockbuster has terrible prices on their 'pre-viewed' media, and yes, most of them are scratched beyond usability. I once rented Mario Golf from there to see if it was any good...never got to play it since there was a huge gouge trough it, and they didn't seem to care when I told them...I wonder why I haven't gone back to that one? :p

XiaoKJ
06-16-2004, 10:37 AM
I think music is really an accessory -- unless you make a living with it.

If they really want to make money, they should try to make cds/dvds as cheap as hell, before they invest in destructive methods. cds/dvds once used to mean secure file backups that wouldn't spoil, but now...

As music companies can't monopolise, they should be selling discs as cheap as possible, and survive on economies of scale.

I think that music companies really act stupidly -- the internet is almost unstoppable and they should make the internet and its costs to their benefit, instead of condemning it. If cds were sold at $1 per disc, then people will find that downloading songs would take so much time and money(same isn't it) that ripping will seem better in value. And clowns like William Hung isn't worth his pay...

hlrguy
06-16-2004, 10:38 AM
Originally posted by Icarus
I once rented Mario Golf from there to see if it was any good...

If you like golf, it is great. Play it a lot. Amazing how these /dev/random threads get off track...speaking of which, anyone use/recommend those wiper blades with the little wings on them. :D

hlrguy

VoiDeR
06-16-2004, 10:38 AM
Just my opinion here but if downloading free music is really making the artist lose money. Then everyone needs to setup there servers to do nothing but download britany spears and insync mp3s all day. My be if we all can work to gether we can get this crap off the air. Most of the people that are downloading music are kids, and what are they downloading Britany Spears and Insync. Last i checked both of them are still making more money than they deserver (in my opinion so dont flame me)

VoiDeR

hard candy
06-16-2004, 11:08 AM
I bought the older version of DVD-Xcopy a few months ago before they removed the ripper. I use it on Win98 to backup my dvds. And the good thing is that unless the reflective layer is messed up, it will copy off a scratched dvd. There are tools available in linux to do the same thing but at the time I was rich and good looking so I paid for an easy install and an easy button pushing GUI. Now my wallet is empty and I haven't looked in the mirror lately. But I do have copies of all my movies, including all three releases of Lord of the Rings. One way to avoid scratching is to handle them yourself, not let the kids get ahold of them and not loan them out.
We can talk all day about unfair copyrights are, but the distributors are selling them and we do not have to buy them.
And the wiper blades with the wings look tachy to me unless you are going really fast with a hard rain coming down.
Also, went to see "Chronicles of Riddick" last night, it was worth the money to me and I plan to buy the DVD.