The things I like I get to keep.

I can use them any time I like. I can use them any place I like. I can use them on any device I like.

I don't have to worry about contracts expiring or crappy phone networks or landline ISP bandwidth caps.

I don't have to worry about how they have cropped the video or otherwise messed around with the source material.

Drives are large enough now that a decent media collection might not even span more than one drive. Shoved in a box, the originals won't take up any more space than anything else in the modern suburban lifestyle.

Clearly you have a problem with individuals retaining their personal property rights.

The "personal viewing" bit is referencing a standard part of copyright law that treats a public performance as a separate right. You can't buy a copy of a recent play and perform it. You need to buy a separate license for that.

This what the studios are using in order to create confusion on this matter. They are pretending that the legal restrictions of the physical copy are somehow related to some mythical license that doesn't really exist.

This helps them perpetuate the myth they are trying to create.

Clearly plenty of people swallow this nonsense at face value.

"All hail our masters the job creators..."

...great. Another blithering Apple fanboy.

The fact that Apple considers something un-trendy accounts for exactly squat. On a Mac, it's a data access device. It implies exactly squat about the state of the rest of the universe outside of the computing industry or Cupertino.

Although the ability to create cheap/disposable media still counts for something outside of the hipster reality bubble.

> I'd say the laptop (with MKV files) is far superior to an Archos. I can work AND entertain myself on a flight with a laptop.

Seriously? On an airplane? You would be lucky enough to have enough room to unfold the thing. Forget about using the keyboard or being able to see what you're doing on screen.

A small hand held device doesn't have that problem.

> I found some posts from intellectual property attorneys and they seem to be saying that you can't just buy a DVD at Walmart and rent it out:

Posts on the Intarwebs don't count you ignorant git.

Cite some actual case law.

This stuff goes back at least 100 years.

Your attempts to be a total corporate whore are unconvincing.

>> VGA cable + Audio Patch Cable + Capture Card = rip almost anything.
>
> Yeah that'll look great on your 70" 1080P television.

It's Netflix. It's not going to look that great on your 70" TV anyways. '-p

Every glitch in the stream caused by network congestion or rogue garden gnomes is going to show up in the end result. You will get to snicker at Netflix, your ISP, and the FCC every time you watch it again.

That's not ripping. That's going back in time to 1985 so that you can employ a macrovision descrambler on your VCR.

DVDs on a laptop? The dude is just lost. Your conventional n00bs are probably going to be using some kind of portable DVD player. Many cars even have these built in. They're much more convenient for a n00b in a confined space. Playing DVDs on a laptop is a very outdated idea regardless of which part of the n00bubergeek spectrum you fall in.

An Archos full of MKV files is similar but more geeky.

It's much less clumsy then dealing with a laptop which may or may not even have an optical drive anymore.

Some works are too obscure. This was one of the great selling points of Netflix back in the day. They were your corner rental shop but they serviced the entire country. A title that might be too obscure for your corner shop would not be too obscure for Netflix.

It's just like Amazon.

I've seen works available on DVD get "expired" from the Netflix streaming service.

Then there are some things that are even too obscure for Netflix. Sometimes these items are subject to a brutal resale market where collectors are reamed. If you're lucky, you can even seek foreign sources of the same material. This is all enabled because a DVD is personal property rather than just a temporary "license to use".

> I'm pretty sure this is incorrect.

You're an idiot. Quit spreading bogus corporate propaganda.

First sale doctrine for creative works (and in general) is a very well settled area of law.

Studios can try and bully distributors but that's pretty much the extent of it.

Ripping DVDs is certainly trivial. It's an ancient DRM mechanism that was nearly instantly hacked. The relevant information was widely shared and suitable tools are legion.

This stuff can't be integrated into the likes of iTunes because of the DMCA but it's otherwise readily available and easy to use.

The idea that DVDs in particular are difficult to deal with just sounds like the rantings of an Apple fanboy with his blinders on too tight.

A modern "DVD player" is a streaming appliance.

So the only real barrier is the monthly cost of Internet service.

Chances are that people already have a suitable streaming appliance and may not even know it yet.

Since the Walled Garden makes pricing information a state secret, it's kind of hard too really. At least with Amazon, I can see if any given new movie can be "rented". All I need is a standard web browser. It doesn't matter if my display platform is supported or not.

Although the idea that a DVD is "clunky", is just mindless elitist claptrap. You stick it in the device and it plays. That's fairly simple really. If not for compulsory ads, there would be no real reason to seek out something else for a rental.

Streaming services and Virtual Jukeboxes are more advantageous for things you are going to watch more than once.

We already have Apple. Thus anyone trying to be an Apple wannabe in the Linux community is redundant.

Not that being Apple has done that much good for their computing platform. They are still the same marginal also-ran that they have been since before Linux ever started.

No one is interested in corporate megalomania. We already have enough corpses of the companies that tried to do things in all of the ways that "helpful" people think Linux should.

One party "in charge" just makes Linux an easier target.

I just pulled up one of these websites and it put me at about 20 miles off my actual location. Although it's not as bad as ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, it's hardly very accurate.

A defense attorney could have a lot of fun with this. Perhaps a defense attorney already did and that's what led to this ruling.