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Replying To:
Everything is not about criminals[ Parent ] (none / 0) (#26)
by Anonymous User on Tue Apr 25, 2006 at 06:00:02 PM PDT

While many things like copy protection and DRM are incorporated as purported anti-theft measures the real objective is to limit the rights of legitimate users. Copyright law has a doctrine of first sale - basically, the copyright holder has only very limited rights to control what you do with something that is copyrighted after you have purchased it. While some of this is about your fair use rights - in reality copyright holder only retain those rights explicitly granted by copyright law - they do not OWN copyrighted works, they own the copyrights. Copyright holders do not want you to be able to record TV shows and play them later, rip your own music and play it on your computer or in your iPod, or cell phone, ... Or atleast they do nto want you to be able to do those things without paying them even more. Contrary to popular belief most of the efforts of the entertainment industry are not targeted at stopping criminals but at preventing and criminalizing ways of using content you purchased that no one has even thought of yet.
As to the rest of the rant on criminals, there is no more crime today than 25 years ago. A significantly larger percnetage of the population is spending a significantly longer amount of time in jail for less and less significant offenses - the retail industry would advocate capitol punishment for shoplifters is it could despite the fact that more retail theft goes out the back door than the front.
Do not misundertand me - criminals need punished for their crimes, but blaming criminals for all kinds of changes that are targeted at finding new ways to bilk more money from honest people, is itself dishonest.
Further what is wrong with corporate responsibility. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, product liability verdicts against well designed products by reputable manufacturers are rare. The real threat is large verdicts against companies that market dangerous junk, or that decide the cost to fix a problem that kills or maims people is higer than the cost of killing and maiming.
Credit card companies railed congress into exempting credit card debt from normal bankruptcy provisions. In the event of a bankruptcy the credit card company is more likely to get repaid than the bank that did its due diligence before issuing your home equity loan. Yet hardly a week goes buy that I do not receive another creidt card in the mail. Just safely disposing of them is an ordeal. While I may receive more than my share of unsolicited instant credit - because I am a good risk, high rate cards are issued like water to people with no possible hope of paying. Loaning money to beople you know can not pay at exhorbitant interest is usery. We are supposed to be locking shylocks and loan sharks up, not doing their dirty work for them.

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