A writer sends this to Tech columnist David Pogue and it says it all. There is nothing to add. There can be nothing to add. I can’t, Pogue can’t – this sums up the insanity pretty perfectly:
Why, why, why is it still necessary for every single DVD that I buy to have the F.B.I. warning at the beginning? Why can’t they just put the warning on the DVD box? Oh wait— they already do. So why, EVERY TIME I want to watch a movie or TV show that I legitimately purchased, do I have to spend 30 seconds being told yet again that, if I choose to copy the DVD, the F.B.I. is going to come after me?
It’s an odd way of saying, “Thanks for buying this DVD.”
Incidentally, I live in Canada. The F.B.I. can’t do anything to me anyway. Still, the warning is on every disc I buy.
VHS tapes had this warning, too, but at least you could fast-forward through it. With DVDs, you can’t skip or even fast-forward through the warning. You have to watch it every single time you watch the disc. Click Menu during the warning, and you’re told that “this operation is not available.” If I fall asleep watching a movie, and the DVD player shuts itself off, I have to watch the warning all over again. If I buy a DVD set of a 24-episode TV show, I have to watch the warning 24 times (unless I watch multiple episodes in one sitting).
It’s a good thing the music industry doesn’t do the same thing. Imagine if every time you wanted to listen to a CD or a song from iTunes, you had to sit through an announcement about the consequences of illegal sharing.
Okay, I exaggerated the “no more to say” part cuz Pogue does add this bit which I’ve been saying for at least a decade:
I don’t understand why some movie studio doesn’t decide to become the Good Guys of the industry. Get rid of all those annoyances, all the lawyer-driven absurdities, and market the heck out of it. Be like the breath-of-fresh air new airline (as JetBlue was in its day) or cellphone company (like T-Mobile, the only company that drops your monthly rate after you’ve repaid the subsidy on your phone). Dare to be different — and win a lot of customer loyalty as a result.