Questions for MPAA visit to Duke
- Given that much of Disney's film empire is based on creative
appropriation of older stories, how can you justify putting fences around
sources for the next generation of inspired creators?
- I got my wife a four-disc DVD set for Valentine's day, but one of our
neighbor's children scratched up the second disc. In your opinion, should
it be legal for me to make a DVD backup of the full four-disc replacement
set I've been forced to buy, even if I have to get around some kind of
built-in protection?
- If he states "circumvention is circumvention" (or something similar),
then say, "Ok, so I'll have to spend another $40 on the DVD set."
- If he says "You can do that now", say "Well, I looked around, and the
only DVD-backup software is currently being sued by Hollywood for
copyright infringement. Oh well."
- If he says, "You have to do that with CD sets anyway, why should DVDs
be different", point out that it is legal to make archival copies of CDs
in digital format.
- U.S. copyright terms are 95 years, 20 years longer than the terms
established by international treaties. If Congress proposed to extend
this term to a century or longer, would your organization support or
oppose that bill?
- If he waffles AT ALL, ask "So, your organization could
potentially see valid reasons why it would be necessary or
proper to have copyright terms of over a century?"
- Region coding restricts which players can play which DVDs. Do you
know of any legal way for me to play a DVD I bought in France that is not
available in the US on a player from the US? If not, why not? Why about
families in the military that move around? Do they have to buy a
different DVD player every time they move?
- Security-related research papers have been the target of legal threats
from the recording industry under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
(DMCA). A felt-tip marker can be used to circumvent protected audio CDs.
Are these what you intended to have restricted as "circumvention devices"
when you supported the DMCA? If not, will your organization make it an
official stance not to sue researchers -- such as Professor Felton of
Princeton -- as the recording industry threatened to do?
- Many supporters of strong, government-mandated copyright protection
claim it is economically impossible to compete with "free" digital copies
online. Bottled water, cable TV, and Microsoft Windows are all quite
profitable despite competing with free alternatives. Why can't movie
distribution companies offer their own download services that don't
require restrictive technologies and successfully compete with "free"?
After all, I'd much rather get a movie file from the company, rather than
risk getting a computer virus downloading a file from a peer-to-peer
network.
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