Comment Number: 539814-00018
Received: 1/6/2009 11:15:26 PM
Organization:
Commenter: Dedes
State: VA
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Rule: FTC Town Hall to Address Digital Rights Management Technologies - Event Takes Place Wednesday, March 25, 2009, in Seattle
Attachments:
Comments:

I think DRM should be made illegal at a federal level. In the case of movies i dislike how the mpaa tries have their cake and eat it too: 1) Consumers are buying the rights to see this film (in which case the blueray upgrade should be free, and if you've seen the film in theaters you get the latest version free in the mail for the rest of your life) or 2) Consumers are buying a physical product (in which case consumers should be free to make backups - quote, display to a live audience) it should be either concept 1 or 2, but not a combination both. since we go to a movie store to *buy* movies; then movies should be given just the protections they receive under copyright law. The DRM on the disc becomes almost a method of false advertising because you're not really buying the movie. In the case of video games, I again feel like with the publishers in control it has gone way too far. For the pc especially. For years there have been games that require the cd to be in the drive to play the game; but these games are always "cracked" or modified to not require a cd, and then released on the internet in that form. This, in effect, penalizes consumers who paid full price for the game by requiring them to have the cd in the drive. While the consumers who downloaded the game for free are receiving a superior product that not only doesn't require a cd to play, but also runs faster and is usually more stable than the official release. In the case of more recent versions of Microsoft Windows, where you must activate the software to receive software updates or to use the product. This wouldn't be too terribly awful, accept that microsoft has carte blanche to not let you activate it. Furthermore, their practice of suggesting the inclusion of a EULA (End User License Agreement) to insist that you are licensing your software and not buying it reeks of the same stuff as the movie industry. I go to the computer store and i buy a copy of windows. as such that copy of windows should only ever be given the protection of copyright law. The idea that I licensed it when i clicked the "Agree" button is ignores the fact that I already *own* the software, that I've already made a purchase, and that i'm free to cross out sections of the License that i don't agree to, or even to ignore it as a meaningless procedure i must undergo to use the software i have just aquired legally. I also think it's horribly wrong that the first sale rights are nearly universally destroyed under most software DRM schemes.