Rich Fiscus
10 Oct 2007 19:58
The Warner Home Video DVD release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will include a feature that allows viewers to download the movie in a format suitable for PC or portable device playback. This is the second such offer from the studio. Superman Returns discs were sold at Wal-Mart with a similar feature for downloading that movie.
The move is interesting because it seems to represent at least the beginnings of a dialog with consumers regarding fair use. Besides including a second copy of the movie suitable for playback on a different device than the original DVD, it also theoretically removes technical barriers for making decent quality copies for format shifting for computers, mobile players, and other devices.
Of course the flip side of that arrangement is the continuation of DVD's DRM farce known as CSS. Instead of addressing what rights consumers should have in their own homes, this approach seems to simply switch from one false dilemna of copy protection vs. fair use for a less draconian situation where the studio graciously gives consumers what they could already get on their own in exchange for an unspoken agreement not to complain about DRM.
As the entertainment industry embraces the idea of recordable encryption like the new CSS implementation for DVD they will need to tread carefully on consumer rights. If cracking encryption to exercise fair use rights becomes a common practice among the general public, who knows what the courts are likely to say in the future about the authority of laws like the DMCA or EUCD to restrict otherwise legal copying.
Source: Video Business