HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC: A HISTORY

[defrog]

Seeing as how the RIAA/MPAA Copyright Infringement Freakout has reached the point where bringing a laptop into a cinema in the UK is forbidden because you might use to pirate the film (don’t ask me how) ....

AND seeing as how various countries in the world are negotiating a new international copyright law that only 42 people are allowed to read (after signing non-disclosure agreements) because the contents are vital to national security ...

Here’s a little weekend reading material for you: Ars Technica has put together a nice chronicle of the history of Established Copyright Status Quo vs New Technologies that threaten to undermine the status quo and kill off the music and movie business forever – from player pianos and gramophones to DVRs and digital TV.

Bottom line: the RIAA/MPAA party line (“if you allow this, the music and film business will die”) is a hundred years old. And yet they’re still here.

Going going gone,

This is dF

Comments

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Mine has one, but to tape a movie off the screen, I'd have to point the laptop screen away from me and hope it's pointed at a good enough angle. And there I am in the theatre, with a big laptop out on my lap open and facing away from me.

So if I was in the business of taping movies off a screen and the idea was to not get caught, a laptop is the last thing I'd use.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

I'd never have thought of taking a laptop into a cinema, personally...

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I do it all the time, but for the same reason as the guy in the article -- I carry it to and from work, and sometimes I go to the movies straight from the office, so I can't drop it off at home first.