I knew MPAA held pretty extravagant views on copyright, fair use, and their “right” to squeeze every last dollar out of major motion pictures, but this one took even me by surprise.
Updated: See Seth Finkelstein’s comment below: Apparently this is satire, but with the MPAA it’s really hard to tell…OK, so if I’d done an “About” at BBSpot… Sigh. Too early in the morning, too worried about a forthcoming trip, too gullible. And the story’s just a little too believable: The mark of good satire. As Emily Littella would say (sp?), “Never mind…”
So a married couple with a 32″ 10-year-old TV with stereo speakers, oh, say, like us, actually has a “home theater” and is “illegally” doing theatrical showings of DVDs because we have two comfy chairs to watch the TV from. And we should have to pay MPAA a registration fee. And our TV should have to report to them what we’re watching at all times.
The natural response is “Are these people out of their friggin’ minds?”
The second response is to say that “theatrical viewing” needs to be legally defined as involving charges or, at the very least, some form of publicity (other than phone calls), so that this sort of c**p will go away.
Next thing, the NFL will say that if you have any friends over to watch football [after all, MPAA’s standard is two or more chairs), you need to pay the commercial license fees that a sportspub would pay.
Some day, the absurd overreaches of the MPAA and RIAA will cause a strong pushback from “our” elected representatives. I hope I’m still alive when that day comes.
Credit where credit is due: I picked this up from Michael Pate’s post at LibraryPlanet.. Thanks, Michael!
It’s satire. Though it is admittedly hard to tell from reality:
“”Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn’t give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That’s a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends,””
The part I loved was “Just because you bought a dvd, doesn’t give you the right to invite friends over to watch it.” Gosh, it’s a good thing my tv is only 27″ or I might be in trouble for any Alias viewing parties I might have.
Someone needs to push back on these two power-drunk organizations, and it needs to be done soon. While they have the right to protect their investments by attempting to limit piracy, this kind of thing goes beyond protection straight into the stratosphere of insane.
Oh, sigh, I didn’t pick up on the satire. As Seth notes, with MPAA, it’s hard to tell…