CDfreaks.com

While there may be some reason to feel encouraged, it is obvious the MPAA’s definition of ‘piracy’ doesn’t pass muster, as one is not considered a ‘pirate’ by their rendering when someone enjoys the very portability their purchase was supposed to have granted them under normal fair use provisions under copyright. It is clear the industry fails to understand consumers only ‘take back’ the rights they were supposed to have in the first place by circumventing DRM. What the essential problem boils down to is the industry’s greed causes this reaction: when the consumer buys something expecting to play it or transfer it elsewhere without restriction but can’t, why should one have to buy it again? There is no one to complain to, or at least no one that listens and helps. The industry’s refusal to accept reality at the consumer’s expense is the trouble:
Speaking last week at the Digital Home Developers Conference, Brad Hunt, the executive vice president and chief technology officer for the MPAA, conceded that many people are frustrated at having to buy multiple copies of the same content to use on different devices and that this is driving them to piracy.

Talk about being out of touch with the consumer! This exemplifies the industry’s general intransigence and shows how ‘slow’ it is to understand its actions generate a backlash. However, how much it is truly ‘concerned’ about consumer reaction is yet to be concretely defined.

What is concrete, however, is that the author of the article erroneously classifies someone taking back their rights with their purchase a ‘pirate,’ demonstrating the author ‘buys into’ the MPAA/RIAA spin—which is quite sad—as this person does not adhere to the distinction that a pirate steals without having paid for the item. Furthermore, the author employs a ‘slippery slope,’ fallaciously assuming because a consumer desires to circumvent DRM to fully enjoy one’s legal purchase that said person will start looking for ways to get other items free. At the very least, this kind of ‘escalation’ is non sequitur. Fortunately, the author redeems himself by identifying one possible solution (that of offering DRM-free music, something eMusic, Tunebite and Yahoo Music [in a limited fashion] already do) to ending DRM. However, it is not ‘visionary’ to see this as a ‘road to profits’ when this is exactly what informed consumers are already demanding. Will the industry on the whole listen and act to end DRM without having to take the legal bodyslams it may have to before changing its mind? Only time will tell.

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by Crabbyappleton:
"Brad Hunt, the executive vice president and chief technology officer for the MPAA
LOOOOL! Good work if you can get it. Pass the caviar to poor Brad. More Dom Perignon? You must be exhausted after battling pirates all day!"