The Act actually protects against distributing digital audio recording devices that specifically don't obey the DAT tape's DRM system. It doesn't say anything about home taping in general.

The AHRA was basically DMCA 2.0; it created a government mandate that certain products must use DRM, made circumvention of that DRM illegal, and mandated that all the companies using the DRM must pay royalties to the AARC.

The Act reads:

No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.

The Act defines a "digital musical recording" as:

(5)(A) A “digital musical recording” is a material object —

(i) in which are fixed, in a digital recording format, only sounds, and material, statements, or instructions incidental to those fixed sounds, if any, and

(ii) from which the sounds and material can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

http://www.copyright.gov/title...

That Exemption was specifically to allow for home taping from CD to DAT and Minidisks, so it seems appropriate here.

I'll admit I'm being wilfully hyperbolic here; nobody's doing their suborbital joyrides yet.

The rule of thumb is that your housing budget is your wage divided by 2.5. When I was flat-hunting lately, they wouldn't even let me do paperwork unless I could show I was earning that much. So a $1500 minimum wage gets you about a $650 apartment.

In my case my terminal always told me what number to call.

There is always a standard of living which is possible on a given wage, so it seems like the logical extension of the argument to me.

Of course they're not faked. NASA just went to the trouble of sending up an empty, autonomous LM and a remote-controlled moon rover. Checkmate, astronauts.

So it's come down to a version of America where people pack themselves into slum housing to get by while the well-to-do reserve $100,000 suborbital joyrides? So much for a rising tide raising all boats.

The sci-fi authors were more right than anyone suspected.

The US government put a lot of time and effort into spying on the USSR's paranormal operations research, and even replicating some of it at home; it was still almost entirely worthless.

Every time I've done it, it has been the customer's bank on the other end of the line.

That would take at least five minutes' more effort than this guy had to put in. Good idea though, I might try that one myself.

It's a pretty natural bit of elision if you think of it as spoken word: "Reviews are finally hitting, [that is, reviews] of the devices, this morning".

Was this dictated and not read?

Put your arms down, you look like a cheerleader.

Scott's producing the series, not directing. David Semel's actually in the chair. He's directing experience across a lot of serial shows, which bodes well for his ability to respect established characters and storylines. So between the two of them, if nothing else it should be a smooth production.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm078...