Think of the entertainment industry as a utility, and the cost of a DVD as a recurring monthly bill (courtesy GMSV)

Think of the entertainment industry as a utility, and the cost of a DVD as a recurring monthly bill
The entertainment industry has never been reluctant to make consumers pay over and over again for media they've already purchased. So it comes as little surprise to hear that the Motion Picture Association of America is suing a company that sells brand-new iPods pre-loaded with a selection of DVDs chosen by the purchaser. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Paramount Pictures accuses Load 'N Go Video of violations of the both The Copyright Act and The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, claiming the company illegally decrypts and copies its DVDs. Now, it is true that Load 'N Go Video's business is built on ripping DVDs and transferring their content to portable media devices. But the company insists the process it uses does not involve decryption. Furthermore, it rips only DVDs already purchased by its customers. Included in the purchase price of an iPod from Load 'N Go Video are all the DVDs their clients have paid to have loaded on the device. When the company ships its customized iPods, it sends them out along with the original DVDs. So essentially, Load 'N Go is a fair-use-by-proxy service. Of course Paramount doesn't like the idea of that at all. It would much rather its customers purchase all their DVD movies a second time if they want to watch them on a portable device. Clearly, its own bottom line is far more important than preserving our rights to use lawfully the digital media we already own. "This is copyright gone too far," writes Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If you buy a DVD, you should be able to make a personal copy of it for your iPod, just like you should be able to make a copy of a CD for your car, without having to ask permission or pay a second time. That's one of the things fair use is for. ... This lawsuit is just the latest example of the entertainment industry taking aim not at 'pirates,' but at the legitimate fair use rights of music and movie fans."