They can't prevent you from backing up your data -- it is happening now. Once you have the data on your hard drive there is no way to prevent backups. Copyright issues happen if you give the files to someone else or try to sell it. HD downloads of music have been available for purchase for years.
In the 70s, their was a big "to-do" about copyright infringement of using a VCR to tape things off TV. I guess they came to the conclusion that it was not a violation. Now 45+ years later people are stirring up the pot about backing up movie/music data?
In the 70s and earlier, there were "underground" companies making prints of films in 16mm and Super 8 that they did not have the rights to. These prints still float around on eBay. Most of the 16mm films you see were made for TV use and rentals -- I doubt they are supposed to be floated around eBay today either.
Streaming is fine -- just don't lie to people and say they can "buy" it. Perhaps "lease" is a better word, and they need to be clear when the lease expires -- so they can't remove it from their service on a whim and tell you "tough luck, Charlie!"
The cable company sent me a new box a few months ago, now with the feature "multi-room" DVR, which stores my recorded stuff on their servers. My old box stored DVR'd shows/movies on it's own hard drive. With this new DVR, the stupid movies won't play most of the time. I googled it, and for this particular cable company and box there are videos of how to "fix" it going back at least 3 years. Unplug it for 5 minutes, then plug it back in. Still doesn't work. I was able to watch a movie last week OK. Then when I tried to watch it again, since I wanted to check something at the beginning, I got an error. If I don't get an error, it starts to play but the pixels are all broken up and it's unwatchable.
I really don't feel like spending an hour on the phone trying to get tech support and then being giving stupid responses like "is it plugged in?" and then telling me to unplug it and plug it back in like that's a magic elixir.
Years ago, my late father used to like Netflix, but on a whim the darned thing would give errors. He would call them and they said "it must be your wi-fi" and he would tell them "I don't have wi-fi!". He plugged the ethernet cable directly into his TV. The solution was to log out and log back in, but there was no logout function on their stupid app! To logout you had to hit a series of up arrow, down arrow, etc in a certain order like 8 times on the remote. He could never remember that, and guess who got the "support" call -- me. I then figured out if I logged into Netflix on the web I could log him out from there and I didn't have to drive over to his house to fix it. Can you believe they built an app without a logout button?
What a bunch of garbage this new technology is.
I don't have these issues when I run a film on one of my many projectors.
I never had this issue with broadcast TV with an antenna.
I never had these problems with a VCR. Anytime I set it up to record a movie it worked. From the very first time I used it as a teenager. The only time I couldn't watch a movie I taped was if it was pre-empted or it started late because of a sporting event or something like that.
I'm all for new technology -- but it has to work! I can build a DVR that doesn't work, too!
One step forward -- two steps back!
