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November 14, 2004

The case for digital media backup

Kyle and I were having a discussion yesterday evening about the ability and the legality of backing up ones own DVD collection. I have personally built a rather extensive library, has has Kyle and his family.

The problem stems with the law known as the DMCA, or the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. While there are good purposes for this law, the biggest problem is that the definisions for this law are way too vague. In certain instances, items that were once considered "fair use" are now considered illegal. Creating a backup of any digital media that requires circumvention of a technology that prevents copying is considered illegal.

Now, with the more specific problem: scratched DVD and CD discs. I am a personal believer that if you purchased a copy of something, regardless if it's a movie, an album, a game, etc ... that you should be allowed to make as many different backups of that media as you want, as long as its for your OWN personal use. The problem that I've run into thus far is that Amanda and I play our DVDs and audio CDs on a regular basis, and they get scratched and worn out. So, even though we've payed our money for our legal copy of our disc, we must fork out another $10-50 dollars for another copy because we're not allowed to copy our media. That we bought. With our money. We have it here in our home. We can provide proof that we own it.

I just wish I knew what in the hell happened to "fair use" in this country. I also wish I knew why corporations have the ability to lobby for crazy laws like the DMCA. It just doesn't seem to be very American to me, as I'm not feeling particularly free at the moment.

~out...

Posted by ed at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)