Quote:
Originally posted by Jack Manfred
So, e/o, having accepted the RIAA's reasoned and unbiased analysis as persuasive, would you then agree with the following statement?
Jamie Kellner, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, which encompasses everything from CNN to TNT and is a part of AOL Time Warner, was asked in an interview why PVRs were bad for his industry. He responded that it's "because of the ad skips ... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial ... you're actually stealing the programming."
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Jamie Kellner's handlers should keep him away from the press, because if he thinks that either (a) he's right as a matter of copyright law or (b) this argument will resonate with anyone other than his mom, his assistant, and flaks within the industry, then he's a drooling idiot.
On the merits, though, e/o's articulation of copyright (muddled as copyright is these days) does not make her an RIAA apologist. Copyright is struggling to keep up with technological advances, and the technology is enabling consumers to gleefully stick it to an industry that deserves to get shafted for decades of doing it to artists and consumers. Watching it get sorted out in the coming years will be fun, so long as we're not among the individuals that RIAA chooses to sue for being prolific downloaders from Kazaa, Firewire, etc.
But in the meantime, we shouldn't assume that downloading and watching a free copy of
The Hulk is permissible under copyright law simply because we can do so.
