Say Anything Blog

Lawmakers are introducing a law that would make it easier for owners of DVD's and other types of media to use their purchases in more flexible ways.

From Fox News:

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., author of the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, says consumers should not always have to worry about being slapped with a lawsuit every time they make a copy of their favorite videos.

"We are seeking to empower the purchasers of digital media so that they can use the media in ways that are more convenient to them," Boucher told Foxnews.com.

Boucher said that empowerment would mean "for example, by being able to move digital material -- whether it's video on a DVD or materials on a compact disc or the text of an electronic book -- around from digital device to digital device in their home or in their extended personal environment."

A lot of people are going to look at this law and dismiss it as just another excuse for internet pirates to keep swapping media files but I think there's a very legitimate need for this kind of law.

I don't support piracy. As a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist I believe that the people who create the movies and music being traded on the internet should be compensated for them. However, people who purchase movies and music should be allowed to create backup copies of the media as well as copy it to different kinds of players, be it portable movie and music players or computers.

This is especially important given the fact that it has recently been revealed that CD's and DVD's are not immortal. They are subject to something called "CD Rot" which will render the discs unplayable after a certain amount of time. You shouldn't have to re-purchase a song or movie just because the disc its stored on is damaged.