The Perfect Copy Isn't

The DMCA was passed in 1998 based on a very, very big lie.

The perfect copy.

Remember? Digital copies are perfect. LPs wear out, tapes wear out, but digital copies are perfect.

Have you rented a DVD lately?

The plain fact is that digital copies are not perfect. They degrade.  They can degrade very quickly.

In my own home, most of the DVDs I rent have to be returned for credit. When I had to copy my iPod back to my hard drive (due to a hard disk failure) I found many of the files had degraded. Some could not be brought back because of scratches on the original CDs.

This is the plain truth in every home, the very plain truth in our lives. Digital copies are not perfect, anymore than LPs were perfect, or tapes were perfect. The Internet may give you the ability to get a new copy, but it will take time to download, and (if it is a copy of a copy of a copy etc. etc. etc.) it's liable to be just as buggy as the DVD.

Yet the recording industries have placed a law before us which bans new technologies, based on this "fact" of the "perfect copy." This false fact.

Why hasn't anyone noticed this?