p2pnet news view DRM | MPAA News:- The corporations are legal people — except they can, and do, get away with a lot more than your average Jane or John Doe.

If you haven’t already seen it, The Corporation is available from all fine P2P networks. Or, as the site says,  “If you already downloaded the film (with the best of intentions, we’re sure!) why not check out the Special Edition DVD, packed with over 8 hours of extras?”

If those eight hours are anything like the main feature, it’ll be money well spent.

Meanwhile,  if the corporations are people, how about MPAA, Inc, with Dan ‘The Joker’ Glickman as its chairman (although not for much longer)? If it was a real, instead of unreal, person, it would have been institutionalised long ago.

“The US Copyright Office is conducting hearings on the exemptions under the DMCA (they do this every three years) and Rebecca Tushnet has been providing detailed coverage,” said Michael Geist last week, going on:

“A full day was devoted to the issue of an exemption for teachers and students so that they could circumvent the locks on DVDs to show film clips in class or as part of an assignment.  The education community are pushing for an expansion of the exemption to more broadly cover teachers and students.  The MPAA doesn`t want an exemption at all, or, if there is one, argues it should be very limited.

“Among the stranger moments of the hearings was the MPAA’s argument that there is no need for an exemption since there is an analog way to create film clips.  Rather than break the encryption on a DVD, teachers could camcord the same film clips.  In fact, the organization showed a video demonstrating how to effectively camcord clips of DVDs without breaking the encryption on the DVD.”

No! Really!

Has the MPAA been reading p2pnet?

“DRM isn’t a dead horse: it was never even born,” we said recently.”If you can see or hear something, someone somewhere will figure out a way to copy it via one analogue or digital means or another.

“End of story. Period. Full stop.”

In our re-run of Michael’s original blog item, Schmock says in a comment post, “Haha – and audio files ‘may’ be copied with a microphone held in front of the speaker? These guys don’t have to run a mental health check before getting their jobs, do they?”

Obviously not.

“So,” says  a Reader’s Write, “now the anti-ripping theme has come home to bite them on the butt,” going on »»»

In all this digital transformation, the one thing that has been strenuously objected to is fair use. I know Canada doesn`t have fair use but they have something more important which is legal downloading because they are paying for the privilege in high surcharges for blank media.

We too, are paying surcharges hidden in the cost of the blank media. Only we aren`t getting anything for that. It was passed with the promise that the money would go to support the artists and has been being charged ever since the days of cassettes. Only not one artist has yet to receive a penny of that money, despite lawsuits by artists suing to get their share. So much for being for the artist.

Now big entertainment wants complete lock down of everything. As Schmock above says, that isn`t possible because it is too easy to circumvent. Lock downs don`t transfer with the audio listening side. Once it hits the speaker, all locks are off.

So the fight against ripping has no real feet to stand on, beyond the big entertainment`s idea they want to control every aspect of their product. More and more they become disconnected to the what their customer needs, desires, and is willing to spend money for.

Buying digital has become a minefield where you, the customer gets ripped off through the whole process. If and when the inevitable happens and the on-line store goes down, so does access to the music you paid to have. So you have rented it, not bought it as was your intention at the start. Ripping the music is the only way to have what you bought from now on. Burning it doesn`t last as the burned disc has not the life of the pressed disc on physical media.

So here comes big entertainment out with the cavalry hoping to stave off the one thing the customer really needs to make buying worth while. No wonder on-line stores are doing so poorly, unlike indies. High prices, lack of having anything for your money, and the loss of that product you bought under the expectation that it was yours and not a rental, has made the majority of customers very dubious of on-line purchases.

Ripping makes a lot of sense, just not to those that want you to buy, buy, and buy yet again the same thing. It worked in the past because of changing media. It doesn`t work today with the same media.

They`ve made copyright laws such a minefield that it is no longer worth the hassles. Those suffering the most are libraries and school applications which have traditionally been granted the ability to use. The very ones that should have this access are the sideline victims of the wish to control every aspect.

“The deal has changed for what you get, it’s not worth it anymore,”" says the comment.

Ain’t that the truth.

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Michael Geist – Hollywood`s MPAA: Cammer Supreme, May 9, 2009
not for much longer – MPAA boss Dan Glickman: on his way out, April 2, 2009
p2pnet - LaLa and DRM, May 8, 2009
blog item – The MPAA on How to Camcord, May 8, 2009