The laws that the corporate powers are pushing go above and beyond simple ownership rights. Right now in Canada, the anti-piracy law being discussed in parliament - which, by the way, most Canadians oppose but the ruling party is ignoring us and listening to corporations instead - makes it illegal to jail break devices or rip from one format to another.
In other words, if I buy a music CD, it would be a punishable offense to rip that music for use in my ipod, even though I acquired the CD legally. They would instead want me to buy yet another version, the mp3 version, from an online store.
I mean, what kind of fascist crap is that? If I buy a CD, I am going to use it in any device I have, and that should be my right as a consumer. With this law, you don't own the CD, you are renting it, and rental comes with rules. That is what DMR essentially is becoming in the modern world.
The funny thing is, these kinds of draconian laws will just push more people to download illegally. Why would I go out and buy a CD if I can't own it or use it how I want like I would any of my own property? I mean, as long as I'm not sending copies to my friends, why should my activities be illegal? This has HUGE implications for how schools use content, other artists (like DJs), etc.
The level of corporate control is just too much right now. It needs to be shut down with proper democratic controls that favor MODERATE and reasonable consumer laws.
But no... instead we are deferring to crime and punishment, as usual. Create more crimes, and create more punishments. Make the jails bigger. Take away freedoms from more people for things that shouldn't be crimes in the first place.