MPAA suggests teachers videotape TVs instead of ripping DVDs. Seriously.

[populistdriven]

So the Copyright Office is currently in the middle reviewing proposed exceptions to the DMCA, and one of the proposals on the table would allow teachers and students to rip DVDs and edit them for use in the classroom. Open and shut, right? Not if you're the MPAA and gearing up to litigate the legality of ripping -- it's trying to convince the rulemaking committee that videotaping a flatscreen is an acceptable alternative. Seriously. It's hard to say if we've ever seen an organization make a more tone-deaf, flailing argument than this.

Take a good look, kids. This is what an industry looks like right before it dies. Video after the break.

VIDEO at the link: MPAA shows how to video record a TV set
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/07/mpaa-suggests-teachers-videotape-tvs-instead-of-ripping-dvds-se/

[lbrtbell]

1. That's absurd beyond words.

Even with flat-screen TV's, there's a difference in refresh rate between what the camera "sees" and how often the TV refreshes. You end up with a horrible, flickering video that can actually trigger symptoms in people with neurological/epileptic problems.

It's time to boycott the MPAA, RIAA, and all their greedy ilk for one month. Just one month. Enough to let them know where their money is coming from, and that we have the power to make or break them, unless and until they stop trying to override our rights to use their products in a private (i.e., not bootlegging) capacity.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. You can tape any show and play it in class within a month

That's the current law and I don't have a problem with that.

Are they talking about changing it?

[msongs]

3. when that industry dies you won't have movies to rip.....off in any form. that'll make ya happy eh?

[uncle ray]

4. yeah, cause teachers ripping DVDs is going to kill the industry.

nice strawman.

now how does using a camera to record off a flatscreen affect "the industry" less than ripping DVDs?

[LeftyMom]

6. Because the end product will be so unwatchable you'll have to pay for the recording.

Which is their intention, to require a format so inherently lossy as to be useless, and to prevent any distribution of copies among educators.

[anigbrowl]

5. I work in that industry. The MPAA are full of it and everyone knows it.

[Umbral]

7. They'll always have theaters, and musicians can always play for their supper.

It's a corpse that hasn't figured out it's dead yet. When they run out of money they wont be able to buy concessions from Congress, then we can bury them.