How stupid CopyRight Law and bad DRM block You from your own Content

Clay Shirky tells Boing Boing his tale of woe:

He wanted to Transcript a talk he gave online. A friend had recorded the talk and made him a copy on a DVD. He needed to convert it to AVI format (used by his my transcription service), and what happened? He got an error message, which read: "To comply with copyright laws, DVD device input is not allowed."

Except he's the copyright holder. There are no issues here, or should be non. No moral, ethical or legal issues. But it will not allow him to do it. I think he saw red (with reason) :

Got that? I am in possession of a video, of me, shot by a friend, copied to a piece of physical media given to me as a gift. In the video, I am speaking words written by me, and for which I am the clear holder of the copyright. I am working with said video on a machine I own. Every modern legal judgment concerning copyright, from the Berne Convention to the Betamax case, is on my side. AND I CAN'T MAKE A COPY DIRECTLY FROM THE DEVICE. This is because copyright laws do not exist to defend the moral rights of copyright holders -- they exist to help enforce artificial scarcity.

He did figure another way to get the transcript he wanted. Maybe he figured another way around to convert it? Remember DRM doesn’t work; it only makes it inconvenient to the law-abiding and the non-technical. But that's him.

What if you made a home movie of you child and wanted to share it with your parents. Or you parent’s wanted to share it with someone else. Could you or your parents figure another way around the restrictions of your of copyright material.

The consumer electronic equipment manufactures have hard coded a set of assumptions, made into rules, into which only allows BIG CONTENT PRODUCERS to convert and manipulate all of this digital media. Why because your supposed to be a CONSUMER, not a producer of your own media, entertainment and information. Your not allow to be a copyright holder. If your trying to do something like backup or copy your home movies, you get treat like a pirate.

Lots more under : DRM/CopyRight