Beyond Copyright -- the Lookright

After I get involved with the Free Software community, I started also to get interested on Copyright concept, laws, access to knowledge, among other things. The most visible effect to all that is: now I pay more attention to the very small letters in the back side of the DVD and CD cases, and also to the "patented" sign in some of the most stupid things ever: like the container where we throw away the glass.

I love music, therefore music is very present in my life. I download a lot of musics from the internet, I share music with my friends, and yes, I buy CDs, and now that I am living in Europe and there is nothing in Portuguese going on on the TV, I buy tons of music DVDs when I go to Brasil.

The last ones were Maria Rita - Segundo, which is a case with a music CD (not protected my DRM) and a DVD with the "making of" of the music CD production.

In the back side of the DVD case usually there are those very small letters saying things like: "Warning: the DVD is protected by law and authorized for home use only. Any unauthorized copying, hiring, lending, distribution, exporting, importing, dissemination, exhibition or public performance is prohibited by law."

I have to say that I think this is completly non-sense, but well, it is the "law" or the way the companies wants to control their rights over the content.

And when we think our "friends" from the music industry reached their limits, they go beyond: the Maria Rita's CD I bought comes with a short, althought more restrictive note in the back side of the case: "WARNING: All rights reserved. The partial or integral reproduction of this DVD is expressly prohibited. The infringers are subjected to penalties provisioned by law"

This means, simply and clearly: I cannot play my own DVD! It would be funny, if it wasn't tragic.

Ladies and gentlemans, let me introduce to you Lookright, by Warner.