If the makers of the tangible products would only realize that what is truly marketable are the intangible aspects of it (i.e., the information - 0s and 1s which were used to program the movie onto the disc with), and then marketed them instead of the tangible portion, it would probably tone down the conflict. I wouldn't mind going to a movie company's website, or record company's website, then downloading an entire album via broadband to my DVD/CD burner. I think once more of this occurs, the industry's argument will become stronger.

Also, I think the more of this stuff that is available free of charge, the more likely it is that it won't be seen as worth the money people currently pay for it, somewhat similar to high quality blogging being said to devalue the value of the work of paid columnists and journalists.

I think that a certain amount of free information is a good thing, but the more of it that is free, the less valuable information becomes as a commodity, which essentially will devalue other things requiring information to run and/or exist.

But every consumer deserves to be able to make a back-up copy of DVDs and encrypted CDs just like they can VHS, vinyl records, etc. My 3-year-old beats the hell out of DVDs, which is one of the examples Louderback uses.

If they were to sell films online as digital video files, if they were cheaper than video/dvd, i'd buy.

Being able to make archival copies of movies, music or software that I buy seems like an inherent right. I should be able to pay much, much less for the product if I'm prevented from copying it.

Such has not been the case though. Price and archive/copying capability are two different things, it seems, and barely related as they should be.

This is sort of related, sort of unrelated: I rip soundtracks from concert DVDs to listen to. I buy concert DVDs specifically for this purpose. I have a DVD player at home and a DVDROM drive in my computer at home. I don't in my car and I don't in my computer at work. I'd rather listen than watch, really.

Bands are more often putting out live DVDs than live albums lately (just like they did with videotapes) and I never know why. Just put the damn thing out on CD while you're at it. But I digress. I have no time to sit down and watch, but I can listen any number of places, which brings me back to my issue: if they prevent me from ripping the audio like I do now, I have no reason to buy concert DVDs, and, therefore, won't be buying many DVDs at all because, like I said, I don't have time to watch, just time to listen.

I wonder how this will impact my own "legal and yet somehow illegal" activies?

Thanks Tom, It's innocent but ambiguous uses like this that point out the stupidity of the copyright industry's rigidity, as backed up by their toadies in government.