Consider the following whether you or I like it or not:

1) The copyright holders are or will try to force the hardware manufactures to include technology to prevent subscribers from copying digitally distributed movies on a permanent media. The High Definition Media Interface encrypts the data stream so you the subscriber cannot copy the copyrighted materials flowing through it.

2) Right now many pay channels (I define a pay channel as one not transmitted through a normal over the air broadcast network.) tolerate time shifting through DVR's. HBO experimented in one market to limit the amount of time a program could be viewed on a DVR (TVO). When the time expired the program was automatically deleted whether the subscriber had time to watch the program or not.

3) According to the copyright holders when you subscribe to a pay channel like HBO or TCM you can time shift via a DVR but are not permitted to copy the movie on a permanent media such as a DVD ROM. They want you to pay twice once for your subscription to the pay channel and again for a permanent copy of the program or movie.

4) Goofy rules department. Businesses may rent movies, businesses may not rent sound recordings. Read the fine print on any audio recordings copyright notice. By the way, the rental prohibition was written to protect members of the musicians unions. To get around the restrictions used sound recordings were sold by used CD stores and then bought back for a few dollars less. The difference in price was the businesses profit.

5) Microvision copyright protection was developed to prevent consumers from renting movies and then copying them. Renting movies in any format and then copying them to keep is theft.

6) It is not illegal to loan copyrighted material on the original media. It is illegal and theft to give a friend a copy of a copyrighted recording or movie unless there is language on the media allowing the recording to be redistribute by the holder of the recording.

7) Around 1998 Circuit City and a team of lawyers developed a pay per play system called Digital Video Express. A Digital Video Express DVD looked like a standard DVD but included stronger encryption and was sold for Three or Four Dollars. The price included several days of playback after which the customer would be charged the next time the DVD was played. The customer was required to purchase a special DVD Player with Digital Video Express hardware included. The player had a telephone jack in the back of the unit like a satellite receiver so it could phone home. Subscribers had to register the player or players to an account in order to play the Digital Video Express encrypted DVD. Each DVD had a unique serial number digitally encoded on the disc to track who was playing the disc and when it was being played. The whole purpose was to prevent a subscriber from selling, renting or loaning a used Video Express DVD. If you loaned your Express DVD to a friend your friends account would be charged for playing the DVD. The system failed because the copyright owners did not want to give a single company so much control over their product.

8) This would be a good time to file a class action suit against the weasels that sold High Definition DVD's and High Definition DVD Players. This product was only around for about two years. Buyers of HD DVD players had an expectation that new movies and media would be released in the HD DVD format. Those expensive HD DVD players are now of little value. Furthermore buyers of HD DVD Discs would expect there to be a continued supply of HD DVD players. In view of the fact that HD DVD players are no longer being manufactured there will be a time when purchasers of HD DVD Discs will no longer be able to obtain players to play the Discs. This situation is a fine example of why DRM and copyright protection is bad for the consumer. Without copyright protection owners of HD DVD Discs could transfer their legally purchased HD DVD's to another format. Right now customers are screwed when their HD DVD player craps out.

If consumers do not make their position known to their Congressmen and Senators, the copyright owners will continue to slowly erode fair use of their product. Eventually the consumer will lament how wonderful it was in the old analog days when your could record a CD on an audio cassette or a television program on a video Cassette.