MPAA: Videotap TVs instead of Ripping DVDs for Classroom Use

The educational community is asking the rulemaking committee for an exemption in Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to rip DVDs for classroom use. In response, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recommends using a camcorder to record DVDs from flat screen television as an alternative. Have a look at this video by MPAA demonstrating how to setup a camcorder:

How different is this from taking a camcorder inside a movie theater to record movies for educational purpose. Why would anybody buy a camcorder, cables, and tripod and go through the pain of setting it up instead of just ripping it? Doesn’t make any sense!

BoingBoing puts it up in a better way:

“In the words of media literacy researcher Martine Courant Rife, that’s like typing up a quote from a book, taking it outside, chiseling the words in a rock, photographing the rock, scanning the photo, and running OCR on it. And for what?”

This post was published by on May 8, 2009

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

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