4 ms·

BREIN is the organisation that puts inane 'Downloading is theft' (which it a simple lie, as any lawyer can tell you) commercials at the start of movies in the c

• aerique 17y ago
  Agreed. Not being able to skip that (and other) crap on DVDs is infuriating! It's really one of my pet peeves.
  • eli 17y ago
    If you don't mind using a PC as a DVD player, AnyDvd strips all that stuff out (along with region coding and most other DRM)
    • cracki 17y ago
      and then you burn the stripped video back and put it in your home theater.
      • eli 17y ago
        Good point. I've actually got an old Thinkpad hooked up to my TV. It works better than you might think. The dock has HDMI and it puts out a full 1080.
        • listic 17y ago
          Would you please elaborate: which Thinkpad and dock models are those? I was not aware that there is such thing as dock with HDMI.
          • eli 17y ago
            Apologies! I meant DVI (along with a DVI->HDMI cable). But as far as I can tell, that's just as good. All digital signal and it looks crisp on my HD TV. It's a T43/p. I believe the /p is important since the regular T43 had a crap graphics card. And I think it's a ThinkPad Port Replicator II (like $20 on ebay). Getting the drivers for the DVI port just right under Linux took some work though.
      • aerique 17y ago
        I know all this but it's the fact that I have to go through all this trouble to be able to use something that I paid good money for.
        • jrockway 17y ago
          That's why many of us skip the paying good money part. They assume we're all criminals, so why not be? Everyone gets what they want that way.
    • Sapient 17y ago
      A program which is itself illegal...?
      • eli 17y ago
        It might be illegal in the US thanks to the DMCA (I'm not sure, and I'm not a lawyer), but it really shouldn't be. It's an unjust law.
        • WinterAyars 17y ago
          The DMCA is, itself, a racket and was designed right from the start to be.
• ErrantX 17y ago
  as any lawyer can tell you As a point of order they would almost certainly tell you it a) depends on the country, b) has been untested in the majority of countries so it is neither right nor wrong and anyway it probably would count as theft in a civil case sense. However I agree BREIN are a bit crazy - and the video they add to DVD's is inane. On the other hand better that than suing individuals I suppose :D (even though that happens too :()
  • deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  • Luc 17y ago
    It agree with a), but I would expect 'copyright infringement' covers the situation in most countries with IP laws. As to b), isn't that mainly applicable to common law systems like the US, UK and its ex-colonies? Most of the rest of the world uses the civil law system which gives much less power to precedents.
  • henrikschroder 17y ago
    No, the crime is copyright infringement. Almost all countries have signed the Berne Convention treaty, and made copyright infringement illegal according to national law. Theft is a different crime that has been illegal pretty much for as long as there has been laws. Pirating a movie is illegal because it is copyright infringement, not because it is theft. Therefore, calling it theft is a lie, as any lawyer can tell you.
    • ErrantX 17y ago
      Actually the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty is the more applicable one :) (it's an extension to the Berne treaty to make it cover software). Unfortunately whilst both treaties are very specific in some aspects they are unchallenged very unspecific in other important areas. Also; they establish a civil crime not a criminal one. Theft laws may still apply here in the UK, as it is I know the only massive obstacle to infringement as theft (here in the UK) is the final article - all about the intention to deprive permanently. There are movements by certain pressure groups to get it clarified where the line is drawn. And anyway - the point the video is trying to make is that it is a "moral" theft. I think it's fair to say the copyright holder has the right to say they feel that morally a "pirate" is "stealing" from them :) (Im not defending them or the video - or trying to suggest it should be theft)
• trafficlight 17y ago
  It's misguided like most things in the "War against Piracy". The people who really suffer are the ones who legally purchased the DVD. Most DVDs you download have those things stripped out. Same with games and applications.
  • pyre 17y ago
    All that "you can't skip these previews" crap at the beginning of DVDs were be there regardless of pirates. It's all about companies treating customers as an inexhaustible resource to mine as they see fit.