‘Copy Protection Schemes Will Fail’
Re “Copyright War: Find a Truce,” editorial, March 19: Copy protection schemes will fail. We are kidding ourselves if we believe otherwise. I would surmise that the software and music industries would even make more money if they didn’t spend it on high-priced consultants to change the law and to develop a technology that a 15-year-old geek cracks over the weekend.
Where is reciprocity? The music and software industries do not want us to copy their products, yet if the customer does not like the CD or software bought, the industry refuses to take it back and refund the customer’s money. Clearly, if the consumer ends up believing he/she is just a revenue unit for the benefit of the industry, then what is wrong with getting a copy through alternative means to make up for this injustice?
Most insidious is the accelerating trend that the customer does not own the software that he/she has bought but only has a license for extremely limited use, which has been unilaterally crammed down the throat of the consumer. Where are our ownership rights and the ability to negotiate the terms of purchase?
Stephen Rynas
Duarte
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If the Hollywood producers of digital content on DVDs and CDs really want to reduce digital piracy, all they have to do is charge a fair and reasonable price for their product. As the manufacturers of prerecorded videotapes found out, if the price is low enough, most people would rather pay for the “real thing” rather than go through the trouble of making an illegal copy. Only cheapskates who wouldn’t buy the movie anyhow will bother with piracy.
The days of getting premium prices for a CD with only one or two good tracks are drawing to a close. As long as the digital content manufacturers insist on gouging the public for their product, they will be engaged in a never-ending battle against digital piracy.
John Morgan
Hawthorne