POLL - Should the law allow restoration of old records to CD/DVD?

It is difficult to articulate just how strongly I am opposed to this, and other efforts by RIAA and MPAA and the industry in general. They've gone far beyond merely trying to protect "intellectual rights" and are stepping into the area of privacy and free speech rights. When laws are passed allowing law enforcement and governmental agencies to enter your home, confiscate property and arrest individuals just for making copies of media that you already own-it is time to start watching out!

If I copy a page from a book, a song from a record/tape/cd because I think it is significant or worthy of passing on to someone else, that is a part of my right to free speech. Conversely, I believe entering your home and confiscating same is a form of censorship, and certainly a dangerous new form of bullying and oppression by powerful private entities.

The ironic part of all this is that the artists, writers and creators do not benefit from any of this. Sonic Rock Band and Mary Guitar Plater does not reap one single cent more. The corporations, however, are up in arms because their already bloated profits are affected. Will copying CD's and DVD's drive them out of business? Hardly. When a "superstar" can command several tens of millions in salaries for just a single film, and even TV actors receive more than a million dollars for just 18 minutes worth of acting per episode, I don't think the "bottom line" is in jeopardy.

But that's beside the point and probably a topic for an economic discussion. The idea that law forces can forcibly enter my home because I made a backup copy of something I'd like to keep is frightening.

Have they kicked in any doors yet, rousted families in the middle of the night? No, not hardly. Will they soon? Doubtful. Could they, after passage of these kinds of laws, coupled with recent court successes? Absolutely! When individuals are bullied and harrassed, either legally or otherwise, it makes me extremely nervous. It is even more unsettling that this time, it is not governments that are the prime movers, but private industries.

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid. Histories Hitlers, Mussolinis Idi Amins, Husseins etc etc, bad as they are, are at least to be periodically expected. But when corporations start suing, arresting and even entertaining thoughts of forcibly entering homes??

Tends to give one pause, doesn't it?

Like I said, maybe it's just healthy paranoia, but I've spent a lifetime travelling and working around the world. Been to 60 countries, seen all kinds of governments, and I think I've come by my paranoia honestly.

 

And, in the interest of thoroughly flogging a subject, here's what one individual I know used to do, as a form of low-level guerrilla warfare.

This person had a rather alrge collection of vinyl, some pretty good stuff, mainly blues but also a lot of good 60's rock. When RIAA started suing kids and grammas, this individual started leaving a trail of CD's, copies of stuff from the collection, as well as downloads, in his wake as he travelled thru airports, train stations, taxis. Probably a lot was toseed out, but perhaps for every 10 that was disposed, maybe one was kept and listened to by an enthusiast in Eastern Europe, Asia, or...

Throwing shit against the tide? Probably. But if that sort of warfare enlightened just one Uzbeki to Delta Blues music or Southern rock, well, maybe it's worth leaving a string of 40 cent plastic "breadcrumbs" in your wake.

RIAA and MPAA are in it for the money and I don't begrudge them. After all, business is in the business of making money (oh, that was brilliant). But, there is an awful lot of music, spoken and written words out there that were created for good reason, other than money.

Or maybe I'm just fulla crap....

 

The law serves no constructive purpose. I am against this law and many other non-sense laws.

 

Fast forward 5 years...
Attitudes have changed. Now they have sold non- DRMed music for about as long and sales have increased. It appears in retrospect, pirating was the only way to get high quality non DRMed music. Now that we can buy what we want there is less pirating. Why they thought we would settle for 128 bit rate music with a DRM for a dollar is beyond me. Movies now have minimum copy protection. They use copy protection that is in public domain so they don't pay royalties any more. That also has not effected sales even though public domain rippers can rip the movies. The deal is most users have a streaming account and that is where their videos and music comes from instead of disks.

 

dont care if it does or doesnt.it shouldnt.still gonna backup my music.