[lang]

Present Perfect

Personal
Projects
Packages
Patches
Presents
Linux

Picture Gallery
Present Perfect

DVD Oil

Filed under: General — Thomas @ 23:07

2008-01-10
23:07

Every time I am watching a DVD and am being forced to sit through these stupid legalese warning pages (don't you absolutely HATE it when you get criminalized exactly when you are doing everything legally ? Why do I get these stupid anti-piracy trailers every single time I go to the cinema and pay to watch a movie ?), I am completely baffled as to why "they" specifically chose to add "oil platform" to the list of places where you're not allowed to see the DVD in group.

I mean, seriously. In French, the words "plate-formes petrolieres" take up almost a complete line of the twenty they're showing. Who writes this stuff ? Who thinks "oh dear god, we almost lost millions of revenue by not excluding the oil platform people ?" Who gets the extra Christmas bonus for getting those two words in there ? What do the tens and tens of oil platform workers think about this ? And more importantly, do they even care ?

In unrelated news, the Buffy "smashed" episode probably has my favourite all-time love scene. Buffy and Spike duking it out, tearing a house down, and suddenly, bam. They get into it as the house collapses around them. The foreground noise cuts out, so you don't hear any of the house collapsing, just their noise, and the moodsetting music. Nicedly edited.

5 Comments »

  1. “The foreground noise cuts out, so you don’t hear any of the house collapsing, just their noise”

    Surely thats the background noise cutting out, their noise would be the foreground noise.
    On a related note to your initial rant
    I once emailed FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) in the UK to discuss their cinema adverts.
    My specific complaints were that
    a) They argued that if someone walks out to go the bathroom and you’re watching a pirated cam version, you’ll see them obscure the picture…umm kinda like if the person in front of you in the cinema walks out to go to the bathroom too.
    b) They showed people clapping and cheering the big explosions. Seriously, if thats the sort of “cinema experience” that they’re promoting then its no wonder people decide to get a pirated version and watch it in the privacy and darkness of their own room away from morons.
    c) I’ve not seen a pirate DVD from a camera in a very very long time. Most of the pirate DVDs I’ve seen doing the rounds all have “For the consideration of the Oscar reviewers” or some such nonsense at the bottom, ie. it’s been leaked from someone in the MPAA or the studio.

    They declined to answer.

    Comment by iain — 2008-01-11 @ 01:25

  2. The reason for the oil platform restriction is due to Sealand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

    Comment by David — 2008-01-11 @ 01:52

  3. I also hate that stupid warning. But if I can try a guess, maybe the fact that oil platform are off-shore, they’re not on the territory of any country and thus may have to be treated differently.

    (“Hey, you said it’s illegal in all countries? We’re not in any country, we’re on an oil platform in the middle of the Atlantic!”)

    Be careful, trying to understand lawyers’ brain could be harmful for yours.

    Comment by erwan — 2008-01-11 @ 03:33

  4. […] Thomas: so, I know nothing about French copyright law, so take with a grain of salt. But… […]

    Pingback by Luis Villa’s Blog / of oil platforms, performing, and other legal oddities — 2008-01-11 @ 04:01

  5. David is correct actually. Nothing too far out at the sea is covered by the general laws that are applicable elsewhere… They are attempting to enforce their rights with that line.

    Comment by troll — 2008-01-11 @ 17:24

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

picture