You're confusing "can't be protected" with "not protected." There's not much anybody can do to prevent the data on a DVD from being hacked. It's there, and while the distributors have taken steps to try to prevent unauthorized copying, it will never be unbeatable. But "they can't stop me from breaking that law anyway" isn't going to work very well as a legal defense in any case I can imagine.

Agreed. You're confusing my explanation for a defense. :lol:

This discussion reminds me of another "classic argument", road tuning vs dyno tuning. :lol:

The thing is, you can't actually be "stopped" from breaking almost any law; why is stealing movies acceptable?

[semantic argument portion of the thread is heating up; all views and opinons expressed by posters here may not necessarily reflect the views of, uh, those posters.]

When we run out of Oil, you better believe Exxon will be involved in the newer alternatives. If the new alternative to gasoline and diesel ends up being water, sucks, but Exxon's going down. It's time for the recording industry to put their eggs in new baskets or move on. Honestly, I think once musicians can cut out the middle man (record companies) and make their music available for a quarter of the price while making more money, the world will be a happier place. I'm sure you all heard how well Radio Head's "In Rainbows" did. I DL'd it and paid them 69 cents. :cool:

What does the inevitable ed of the petroleum supply have to do with stealing movies? While it's pretty clear Hollywood is out of ideas, they aren't going to stop making movies, ever. While I agree there needs to be a shift in how we distribute electronic media, there is no supporting argument for flat out stealing it.

I presented this argument tonight in deviance of sociology class and justified downloading music and movies by saying something along the lines of, "I do it more as sampling. What's the point of buying an album I heard was good or that I think I'd like only to find out I hate it after I spent $15? If I really enjoy something that I download I'll buy the album/movie/TV box set. I like to think that's the same mind set as others, thus sharing music/movies/TV is justified."

My point was simply that, if more effective security measures can't be implemented, the value of music and movies (in recorded form) is going to no longer be a commodity. Sucks if you're in the business of producing and selling these commodities, but, unless they can be secured, they're simply no longer as valuable.

So IMHO the realistic concern should be that, if they aren't getting paid as much, artists will no longer be able to afford to produce high quality movies and music. But, IMO, there will always be a market for recorded (albeit reduced) and live music (which may actually increase as a result of broad distribution throught he web).

Music and movie distributors are becoming, to some degree, obsolete (like Exxon in my earlier example). Movie makers will continue to make money at the theater (albeit less now that movies can be DL'd) and on TV play; and musicians will continue to make profit from live shows and on the sale of their albums (physical and web derived).

Hopefully the quality of their product doesn't suffer, but with wider distribution of their music, bands will make a name for themself more readily and more people will attend their concerts and buy their albums. I really doubt that people will ever stop purchasing physical albums, they'll just need to cost less. But hopefully the cost of producing an album continues to cost less and less as well, as record companies drop like flies and websites that offer your album in downloadable and physical manifestations become more mainstream. Many top bands have dropped their labels already and I believe it's because they're no longer necessary in this day and age.

Really though, I think it's on the movie/music companies' shoulders to introduce a new way to secure the distribution of their product. I don't think it's an impossible task. All wars are fought with technological weapons...right now, the corporations are losing to the geeks due to a lack of good technology. The gov't is on their side, they just need to get the technological breakthrough that gets them paid. I'm certainly not against that, although I hate paying $20 for a CD or DVD.