Re: [dvd-discuss] LA Times Article about Replay TV lawsuits

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

Hmm....lets see remote controls, fast forwards, the mute button, channel 
surfing, getting up and going to the bathroom during the commercials ALL 
must be copyright infringment and included in the lawsuits....I'd say that 
the studios thought "lies between the pit of man's fears "....

The real question is if the courts can separate copyright from the 
business models the copyright holders have....last paragraph is the best 
soundbite.

"What difference does it make how I do it?" Wood
said. "The dilemma is, the technology is turning
the business model upside down. But that doesn't
mean it's copyright infringement." 

The only thing different about digital is that there are a lot of dodos 
out there running the studios have to learn a new word...not that they 
ever understood what analog meant.






Ron Gustavson <rongusss@mediaone.net>
Sent by: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
02/11/02 02:35 PM
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        Subject:        Re: [dvd-discuss] LA Times Article about Replay TV lawsuits


On Mon, 11 Feb 2002 15:57:43 -0600, Stephen L Johnson wrote:

>OK. Today I've woken up and find myself in the Twilight Zone. 
>
>Here is an article in the LA Times about the Replay TV lawsuits:
>
>http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000010608feb11.story?coll=la-headlines-busin
>ess
>
>The movie studio's lawsuit is the most unbelievable. I think their IP 
lawyers 
>have finally lost their minds. A quote from the article to illustrate:
>
>  "The suit filed by MGM, Fox, Universal Studios and Orion Pictures goes
>   furthest, arguing that it's illegal to let consumers record and store 
shows
>   based on the genre, actors or other words in the program description."
>
>Things that a consumer do with a VCR, a TV Guide and a bunch of tapes is 
>legal, but doing it with a computer is illegal? It alright if it's not 
too 
>convenient? If any Court finds for the movie studios in any fashion, I 
think 
>I'll lose what little faith I have for the US legal system.

Well, now that Sony Betamax is virtually repealed, they can assert 
anything
they want. After all, "digital is different." Or so they say.

Perhaps they can expand this to being "illegal to let consumers watch 
shows
based on genre, actors, program description or any personal preference." 
They can repeal the remote control. (But just try to wrest that gadget 
from
my cold dead hands.) Perhaps now--ala Clockwork Orange--anyone will watch
what they must, not what they want.

They haven't lost their minds--they've lost ours.

Or else...

  |There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is 
  |known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space 
  |and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle 
  |ground between light and shadow, between science 
  |and superstition, and it lies between the pit of 
  |man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This 
  |is the dimension of imagination. It is an area 
  |we call The Twilight Zone.
        __________NO-&infin;-DO__________