The MPAA Doesn’t Want You Recording That Movie

The MPAA is at it again.  Now they want to prevent consumers from recording HD movies during the time period between when a movie is released in the theaters and it is available on disc.  They are petitioning the FCC to change the current restrictions on the use of technologies that restrict home recording.

In a very real sense, it is the studios’ content and they can do with it as they please.  As consumers we are also free to not purchase their product.  But in this case their ideas seem to do nothing except annoy people.  According to the article, they only want to block the recordings during the roughly 2 month period between when a program begins to be available in these other mediums and when it is available on disc.

This is a case where the MPAA is going to generate a huge amount of consumer ire for very little actual benefit.

AACS Encryption Key Released

The current buzz is the release of the AACS encryption key from the software DVD player WinDVD.
Knowing the key would allow you to decrypt any High Definition content so you could make a “backup”, transfer the content to another format and/or device, or, obviously, pirate it.

This is just part of the ongoing game of cat and mouse. The key will be revoked, current WinDVD users will need to upgrade and we’ll be right back where we started. Dealing with software players is one thing. The whole thing gets much more interesting if a hardware player’s keys were obtained. Can you imagine if the keys to the PlayStation 3 were released?

Obviously, a majority of the people who are clamoring for DRM-free content want it for non-legitimate purposes, but there needs to be some solution here because right now everyone is losing. Consumers are losing because they are not being offered content they would pay for, and content providers are losing because consumers are rampantly pirating their content since material they would pay for is not legally available.

Clearly something needs to be done about all this. Content providers are not allowing consumers to use the content in reasonable ways and consumers are not respecting the property rights of the content providers. If the content providers would include (for example) a DRM-protected, iPod formatted version of the movie on the DVD, consumers wouldn’t need to rip the disc or download one so they could watch the film on a second device for their legitimate personal use.

EMI Music Launches DRM-free Downloads

Earlier this week EMI Music announced they would make DRM-free downloads available through Apple’s iTunes music store. I never thought I would live to see the day when a major music label would give up the fight for digital rights management.

Anyone who has even a passing interest in digital content knows there has been a long running battle between artists and distributors who want to protect their content from piracy and consumers who want to repurpose content or use it on multiple devices.

The industry argues that DRM is a necessary evil to prevent piracy and illegal downloading. In their view, the fact that it prevents using the purchased content on multiple devices is just an unfortunate side effect. Consumers argue that they paid for the content and they should be able to do whatever they want with it and make backups.

The industry counters that if they provide DRM-free content, there is nothing except the honor system to stop people from distributing the content to others, and consumers have shown in the past to be less than honorable. Consumers say if they were offered DRM-free content they wouldn’t need to turn to pirated material to do what they want with the content and they would pay for content they previously obtained illegally.

I can certainly see how the industry is going to be very skeptical of a public who has flagrantly pirated content for years, claiming that they are suddenly ready to gladly pay for content simply because it is DRM-free. This will be a very interesting test for both sides.

If people do not purchase the DRM-free songs or they quickly appear on file sharing networks every other label and distributor will say, “See, the public was lying. They just wanted us to make it easier for them to continue to steal our content.”

Personally, I would strongly encourage those of you who support the idea of DRM-free content to go and buy some EMI content from the iTunes store and not to post it on any file sharing service. There is no better way to prove to the industry that you are serious about wanting DRM-free content and are willing to pay for it if they will provide it. It doesn’t really matter if there are any songs you like or not. If you are serious, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.