So you’re going to respond to a bunch of people who WERE talking about it in the legal sense by using technical arguments?

Thanks, but what’s the point? I don’t think anyone disagrees or is confused by any of the points you made. (Inclusing Jobs, Gruber, and you and me.) You’re correct in all your points, but since no one disagrees with you (now or before) I have to wonder if this whole thing was worth your time.

• I agree with you, but to the MPAA consumers swallowed this shit for 20 years and crying about it now is just a bit late. The RIAA never got this pass, and consumers started screaming not too long after digital files became available. It still took a few years but with the EMI agreement the tide is turning. Look how difficult it was, and the MPAA will not go that “easily”. I think it is this situation that Jobs argues when he says movies and music are different.

• Gruber may be right about the MPAA not having a “Napster moment”. The MPAA may even be fooled into thinking this is because their DRM is somehow “working”, but I thin the simple fact is the file sizes involved. As the pipe gets bigger the chances increase for more casual movie file swapping and then we’ll see. But realistically that’s likely still a few years out.

• It should be obvious now why there are hardly any movies on iTunes. The MPAA hates Apple’s FairPlay DRM. Compare that to Unbox and it’s pretty obvious why. Apple will never consent to such terms, and they’re the terms the MPAA thinks they deserve. I’d like to think that as Unbox and others fail miserably the MPAA will give Apple a shot, but so far they’d rather no sell online than offer anything like fair use.

• You tend to gloss over the legal argument against DVD copying, but I do not. Not because there aren’t tons of software programs to let you do it, and many people actually doing it, but because that alone will hardly convince an entity to allow it legally. If it did, then smoking pot, speeding, etc., wouldn’t be crimes. Like it or not, the law is on their side, and has been for two decades. The RIAA did not have that argument to fall back on. One could even argue current fair use rights were working against them.