:: Camera-phones don't steal movies - people steal movies ::

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

One of the great things about having a push-style RSS news aggregator is that you can nicely keep on top on flash memes with little effort. When I walked into work today, I had no idea that camera-phones (er, more specifically, any and all recording devices) had been banned in movie theaters. Now, at the close of business, I've read about, or at least seen the headline for, at least a dozen articles, reports, and blog entries.

Anyway, the logic goes something like this:
Device brings new uses? Yes.
Device has both good and bad uses? Yes.
Good uses outweigh bad uses, but bad uses might be criminal in nature? Yes.
Device should be banned from any situation in which criminal acts are possible. Q.E.D.

By that reasoning I can think of a multitude of objects that should be illegalized in many contexts. Or perhaps, if we follow the handgun paradigm, phone manufacturers should be liable when the MPAA decides someone with a camera-phone has eaten into their profits.

Anyway: I just got a shiny new Treo 600. They can take it from me whenever they want - out of my cold, dead, hands.

Posted by morland @ 06:26 PM

:: Comments ::

i dunno from camera phones, but divertado should definitely be illegalized.

Posted by: josh on December 10, 2003 06:49 PM

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