(via boingboing)
Just like the former head of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) found out that DRM causes problems for perfectly legal uses of digital content, this copyright supporter found out that sometimes the content providers can take away your legally stored digital content if they decide they don’t want you to have it.
The problem is, we have been using the PVR to record 2 years worth of a Spanish language curriculum that is broadcast over an educational channel, and we’ve been using this content to teach our son Spanish. Now the curriculum is gone. It’s not like I’m just inconvenienced in not being able to watch my “24” episodes. An educational curriculum is lost.
For those who aren’t familiar with Mr. Giovanetti’s work, he’s a frequent and pugnacious commentator on intellectual property issues, and an avowed supporter of the DMCA and digital rights management technologies. He’s a frequent critic of “IP skeptics” and “commonists” who argue that copyright law–and the technological measures designed to protect copyright–have gone overboard.
Today he discovered that sometimes, technological measures designed to deter piracy are a pain in the ass for ordinary consumers–like him.
And because of the way the DMCA and other laws which favor businesses over consumers are written, his legal recourse is nil. Oops. That’s where you realize the dog you’re feeding just bit your hand.
[tags]Copyright, copyfight[/tags]