HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC, PART 22,704

[defrog]

ITEM: MPAA/RIAA lawyer Steven Metalitz says that the movie and music industry opposes any exemption in the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) that would allow users to legally strip DRM from content if the online store goes dark and takes down its authentication servers.

Here’s what that means: if the online music service you downloaded music from legally goes out of business and shuts down the DRM servers that authorize you to listen to the music you paid for, you will no longer be able to listen to the music you paid for unless you get some software to strip out the DRM – which is illegal under the DMCA.

And the MPAA/RIAA want to keep it that way, says Metalitz:

"We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works. No other product or service providers are held to such lofty standards. No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity, and there is no reason that any particular mode of distributing copyrighted works should be required to do so."

In other words: yr TV won’t last forever. Why should yr music/video collection?

Of course, in a way, we already have music collection expiration in the form of format changes. Which reminds me of this slightly annoying Nancy strip:



The difference, of course, is that yr vinyl albums don’t stop working if the store you bought them from goes out of business.

See what they did there?

Obsolete,

This is dF

Comments

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

same case for Kindle in publishing, I think. They should charge people "rental" fee instead.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Exactly. At least it would be more honest.