An Industry Unwilling to Play by Rules of 'Fair Use'

[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik]
[Commentary] Scarcely a week passes without the entertainment industry warning us that its business model is about to be exterminated by some new technology. The Internet, satellite radio and TiVo are among the mortal threats that have sent media executives scurrying to Washington with proposals to rein them in, tax them, even ban them. The music labels, TV networks and movie studios never propose to alter their own models to accommodate new technologies — they merely insist that everybody else change to accommodate them. When they don't get their own way with lawmakers, they take it out on consumers. Media companies detest fair use. They regard your ability to make a backup copy of a CD as a lost opportunity to sell you a new disc. They worry that a song parody by "Weird Al" might be mistaken in a store for the real thing. They don't understand why a critic with the knives out for a book should be permitted to quote from it in a review. If they had their druthers, you'd pay them a few bucks every time you played a DVD at a party or put songs on a mix CD to give to a friend.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-golden12dec12,1,57249...
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