[mythtv-users] Torrentocracy

Thor Melsted thor at netwood.net
Tue Jun 22 16:39:37 EDT 2004


J. Donavan Stanley hacked up a hairball and growled:
>And maybe just maybe, obeying the law so we don't give them ammunition.  
>People like David are the reason things like the DMCA exist.  If idiots
like him weren't 
>sharing shows, movies and music with their buddies we wouldn't have the
mess we have now.

 The DMCA exists because MPAA and RIAA lobbied congressmen and senators, in
an attempt to protect their content from the prying eyes and ears of
legitimate consumers who have already paid for the content and want to
assert their rights under the fair-use clause to use the content they've
paid for, in a specific manner not originally described by the copyright
owner, e.g. putting their music on mp3 players and/or making backup copies
of movies they've already paid for.

 I record a particular show on a weekly basis and edit out the commercials
myself and encode it to a nice format such as Xvid, but what if one week
there's a power outage and I miss the recording?  How would it be different
for me if I were to download a copy of the same show which has been made
available by someone else?  I fully understand the issue as presented by the
MPAA where they say that because it's made available, anyone can get it and
it's without permission from the copyright holder, and that the advertisers
get cheated. But it's missing the point.

 Sharing movies and music is a little different than sharing tv shows that
are broadcast on free network television.  The movies and music you've paid
for (most of the time anyway), whereas tv shows are broadcast laden with
commercials.  If I timeshift to skip the commercials (either using myth,
tivo or a vcr), wouldn't that be the exact same act of "stealing" as if I
had watched the show in a pre-edited format off a cd or dvd I borrowed from
a friend, who made it the exact same way?  I don't see a difference.  The
only difference between the copies, is that I made one (as I'm legally
allowed to do) and someone else made the other.  The end result is the same,
and therefore the step of downloading merely replaces the steps of capturing
and encoding.

 Also, please mind your manners.  This is not the only time you've been rude
here.  Your first reply to me was rather rude as well.  This is a
"discussion", not a pissing contest.  Calling people idiots is completely
uncalled for, and so is having a nasty overall attitude.

Live long and prosper.


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