MPAA keeps trying to make me a criminal
The Motion Picture Association of America won’t be happy until it is illegal to watch the original airing of TV shows and movies without a signed contract.
Last week the courts threw out a law that would severly limit - even criminalize - the mere copying of television shows by placing a so-called Broadcast Flag into the signal of presumably “valuable” shows. This Flag would tell your VCR, Tivo, or other recording device whether it was “legal” for you to copy the show off the air and watch it at a different time. I’m sure that many people did such a thing with the last episode of Friends and Seinfeld perhaps popping some corn and watching the final episodes with their friends some even, shhhhh… don’t tell anyone, on a different night than the show actually aired.
The courts said that the FCC didn’t have the authority to require the Broadcast Flag so our esteemed MPAA is attempting to get that authority written into law. Then they will repropose the Broadcast Flag.
In a recent post titled “Hollywood Loserism” I rant about the legitimate copies of movies that begin with an anti download “pirate” commercial. Keep calling your customers criminals and keep wondering why people stop buying your products.
It is the 21st Century. The MPAA and the RIAA have to develop new business models and stop depending upon Congress to strong arm the American public suing grandmothers and 10 year old kids. But I guess that’s what we should continue to expect from a government that thinks “randomly” strip searching grannys at the airport will keep Osama Bin Ladin and his cohorts at bay…
