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| I don't see a problem with people who do, you know what people do in the privacy of their own home is their own business and all that. |
As for "copies", as you point out, and as has been pointed out in several threads over the years, what good is a "copy" when the original is so robust. More to the point of law, even if it was not, then like any other product, you must buy another to replace it as long as it is not covered by a warranty.
Think about the logic here for a sec. If you could make perfect copies of any product you want for less than a dollar, are you suggesting that in your opinion it should be perfectly legal to make "back-up" copies, so that you would never have to buy that product ever again should it wear out? Just because it is easy to copy does not make it right.
The only reason this is a problem with DVDs is that not only was the copy protection broken, but it is now extraordinarily easy and cheap to make PERFECT copies. Perhaps it is because it is so cheap and easy, and people are making copies left and right that because of this it must not be illegal.
Worst of all, they wont admit to the impact it has on everyone else. Have you tried selling a used DVD on eBay lately? It's a joke. There are so many copied DVDs that it has driven down the price of legitimate copies so that it isn't even worth selling them any more.
Then there is the problem of the studios who are being forced to lower their prices just to compete with pirates who's only cost is duplication, while studios are paying billions of dollars each year on film and DVD production costs. This will surely prevent many lesser-known films from ever being put on DVD as the studios most likely would lose money on them due to the costs, and then having to compete with illegal "copies".
It is a very ugly situation, and it appears as if it is only getting worse.
Now I will say this, as someone who would very much like to do away with having all these discs and cases, and would love to have a well designed media center PC with +30 Terabytes of disc space to hold all my DVDs (waiting for my fisrt hollographic PC drive)
, I do support the need for managed copy so that for those like me that would just as well not have to screw around with those discs, can make copies to our PCs for playback. This will become even more important as hard drive technology surpasses optical disc technology in playback performance.I can definitely see a time, many years from now, where the days of large physical collections will give way to massive shared online libraries. Think NetFlix, but instead of discs, you just instantly download the film you want to watch and in the exact resolution of the display you are using.
Just look at the music industry and the vast popularity of satellite and cable music subscriptions, file sharing, downloading, and iTunes. Consumers are already saying they don’t like “discs”.
As a collector, it will take some getting used to, as in not having the plastic cases and shiny discs to fondle (heck, I still have about 1,000 vinyl records and more than 1,000 CDs), but this is also what people said when email first came about. The advantages may very well far out weigh the nostalgia once it becomes commonplace. Of course this is a model that wont likely happen for another ten or twenty years, but we are definitely moving in that direction.
What remains to be seen is how the studios will be able to A) protect their copy rights and B) establish a reasonable system of equity for a business model where members have access to tens of thousands of titles online.
", and that can't be pleasant.
The only flicks from your list that I haven't seen are the already mentioned Howls Moving Castle & Wonderful Days which I'll make a point to check out.
