On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 05:29:16PM -0500, Mike Miller wrote:
> Reading a little more from this quote, I think he is being irrational. 
> The exact same argument could apply to copying any digital media -- DVD 
> movies, audio CDs, etc.  Does he think it is evil to sell movies on DVD? 

Not necessarily.  It is evil to sell movies scrambled with CSS just
for the purpose of:
   * forcing you to sit through commercials for movies that were
     released five years ago
   * not allowing you to back up the cartoons DVDs, thus having to
     rebuy the same media over and over once it gets scratched
   * splitting the distribution areas in regions, so that people who
     understand foreign languages and might appreciate foreign shows
     need to buy more players or players "illegally" modified to play
     media encoded for multiple regions
   * forcing you to connect your hardware to the Internet so that it
     can download new keys and upload your viewing habits to the
     overlords

> I don't agree with him.  If people couldn't sell their movies, they 
> wouldn't make them.

Youtube has millions of homemade movies distributed without a profit
motive.  (Yes, I know about the other 66% of the clips).

>                     It isn't like that with software, as we can see.  A 
> movie might cost $10 million to make and some movies cost more than $100 
> million.  If it were unethical to sell DVDs, they'd show the films in 
> theaters only and they would not print DVDs, but wouldn't we all lose 
> then?

Not necessarily.  There would be fewer crappy movies since the studios
won't rely on the buzz to get all the money in the first two week-ends,
before the movie goers wise up.  We'll need to go out more and meet
other people.  (Yes, I know the movie theaters are dirty and invaded by
teenagers with cell-phones, but maybe we work a little and do something
about that).  Maybe we'll watch less TV and read more, or go walking in
the park or engage in civic responsibilities instead of spending more than
half of our non-sleeping non-working time staring at junk programming.

Kumbaya...

florin

-- 
Bruce Schneier expects the Spanish Inquisition.
      http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/163
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