Kinda unrelated to media center, but inclusive.  I found a post over on TechCrunch today that interested me quite a bit.  The idea of a digital bill of rights is a good one.  Privacy is probably the most important consideration, but to bring this around as to how it could effect us as media center users, what interests me is copyright law and how it needs to change.

Right now, I have 262 movies on hard drives in my home.  In the U.S. I guess this is crime even though I own the DVDs and they’re sitting in boxes in the closet right now.  I’ve ripped and converted this movies because I’m a media center user and I want to view my media when and where I want to view it.  Whether in my bedroom directly on the VMC, on my Xbox 360 extender, or on my Zune.  I don’t share my movies or music, nor do I attempt to sell them.  I simply wish to watch/listen to the media I paid for, the way I want.

Does this make me a criminal?  I certainly don’t think so.  And I’m willing to bet that most people reading this won’t think so either.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what you or I think.  What matters is what I could be prosecuted for. 

With the setup I currently have, I do exactly what I stated above…Watch movies on any set in my home, plus my Zune.  This to me is the perfect scenario.  And all I’m asking for in a copyright law.  Let’s introduce some sort of fair use law that doesn’t turn me into a criminal for watching media I paid for.

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