Ranting to /dev/null

No friends for you

The MPAA is lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would require the authorization of every "home theater". It would cost $50 and would send detailed information about the content being shown and the audience back to the MPAA. What constitutes a home theater? A 29" TV and a couch. So basically every living room in the country.

Money quote:
"Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends," said Glickman. "Ideally we expect each viewer to have their own copy of the DVD, but we realize that isn't always feasible. The registration fee is a fair compromise."

So, you can buy a DVD, but you're the only person allowed to watch it. You can't actually show it to anyone else. Which is kind of the point of buying a DVD in the first place.

I think it's high time that we eliminated the legal fictions that make this kind of insane posturing possible. Strip copyrights down to 15 years and eliminate all penalties except for distribution. This has gone far enough.