Only the Professors
11.29.06 - 07:00am
One would think that when you go to all the trouble to go to a store, wait in line, pay full price for a movie, you would then be able to watch it on whatever media you like. Not according to Congress. According to them if you purchase a DVD, you are only allowed to watch that DVD on a DVD player. If you take that movie and download it to your iPod then you are breaking the law. If you want to watch a movie on your iPod you must then purchase it through iTunes or some such store. (??? can you then hook your iPod up to your TV and watch it or is that illegal too?)
There are some exceptions to the rule. If you are a professor wishing to teach a class you can break the encryption technology in order to put together compilations of movie clips for education. While the movie studios have argued that they could use VHS to do this, congress has disagreed. (Does VHS even exist anymore?)
So while one group wins, we unprofessors will still have to purchase the video’s from iTunes. After all Hollywood needs it’s money too, and it would seem needs it or at least demands it twice. Still one would wonder why, when ripping DVD’s is illegal, so much DVD ripping software is for sale everywhere?
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