“the National Consumers League found that 90 percent think that they should have ability to back up DVDs on their personal computers in the same way they are able to do with music from a CD”

please, who above the age of 6 thinks this is an intellectually honest argument. the vast majority of ‘backing up’ CDs is really theft. sharing with friends, making them available to torrents, etc. the intent for the DVD is the same, and the result will be even more egregious as unlike music, you don’t watch movies over and over again…but you can still super-distribute them.

the assumption of the simple and the self interested is that anything that is capable of costless replication is of basically no value and the original creator/distributor is somehow ‘bad’ for wanting to be compensated. they don’t seem to have that same feeling about cars or hamburgers…or perhaps they do, but just can’t find a way to nick a chevy or a big mac without someone catching on.