Paramount sues Load 'N Go

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Just a couple days after the announcement that Universal Music is suing Myspace, comes the revelation that Paramount Pictures has sued Load 'n Go, a company who sells customers iPod pre-loaded with the movies they choose, and charges for both the media player and DVDs. Once the ripping process is finished, the iPod and DVD movie discs are shipped to the customer.

The basis of the suit, Paramount claims that in doing so, Load 'n Go is circumventing the copyright protection built into the DVDs in order to rip them onto iPods.

Although this lawsuit happens to be aimed at Load 'N Go, the DMCA theory in the complaint makes it crystal clear that the MPAA believes it is just as illegal for you to do the same thing for yourself at home.

In this modern age, where disposable consumer goods are fast becoming the norm -- 'Fix-it' repair shops are for the most part a thing of the past -- we are being encourraged to "throw away and buy a new one". Well now it appears that Hollywood believes if we want to watch a movie we already own, we should also have to buy another iPod-compatable copy of the movie.

If you ask me, this is taking the copyright issues way too far. If you buy a DVD, you should be allowed to make a personal copy of it for your iPod or any other portable multimedia player, just like you should be able to make a copy of your favorite CD for your car, without having to ask permission or pay a second time. That's one of the things fair use is for. Of course, the MPAA claims the Digital Mellennium Copyright Act (DMCA) changed all that.

Before the DMCA, the studios would have had to go to court and prove that "space-shifting" is not a fair use. After the DMCA, they simply argue that "circumvention" of the CSS encryption on DVDs is forbidden by the DMCA, fair use or not.