Public Knowledge today submitted close to 400 comments
to the U.S. Copyright Office in support of PK’s petition that consumers be able
to copy DVDs they lawfully own onto devices they also own.
The comments were submitted in the reply round of
comments the Copyright Office seeks every three years on whether there should
be exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Content Control
Association (CCA) opposed PK’s recommended exemption, saying that a new policy
would confuse consumers and lead to “total breakdown of the marketplace
for digital goods.” PK disagreed,
telling the Copyright Office that: “The
public makes the distinction between authorized and unauthorized copying on a
regular basis. To cite an obvious
example, the public recognizes the difference between copying a song from a CD
to an iPod and illegally downloading a song from the Internet. Copying a motion picture from a DVD to an
iPod is not so fundamentally different as to completely upend that distinction.”
Public Knowledge added that while the content groups
proposed alternatives, “every alternative to circumvention proposed by MPAA and
DVD CCA requires an individual to pay an additional fee to access a motion
picture they already lawfully own a copy of.”
Another option the content business suggested was that consumers record
their movies onto another device. PK
said that option wasn’t feasible, either:
“The example of transferring music from CD to other devices is
instructive. The process of making an
exact digital copy is almost instantaneous.
No one proposes that individuals play their CD on a stereo and set up
microphones to re-record the sound.
Similarly, no one should be required to do the equivalent in order to
make a legitimate copy of a motion picture.”
PK’s reply comments by themselves:
http://publicknowledge.org/files/PK%201201%20reply%20comments.pdf
Reply comments with the appendix containing the 395 public comments in response
to our Action Alert:
http://publicknowledge.org/files/PK%201201%20reply%20comments%20with%20appendix.pdf
Public Knowledge Reply Comments to Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)