Is this posted anywhere else? The LA Times sign-up is a royal PIA...

"Do you want Hollywood to dictate how you watch DVDs at home?" Please. They already dictate how we watch movies. Why is this even an issue?

If you think about it, the director/producer/publisher give up control as soon as the consumer purchases the movie. It's been that way ever since the development of the VCR. I fail to see the distinction between something that enhances the viewing experience, such as a family friendly auto-fastforward, and the simple manual fast forward or stop button that's been on every VCR since they were created.
If the DGA gets their way in this, they would seemingly be within their rights to prevent anything that would interrupt or alter the flow of a movie. So, would the stop, pause and fast forward buttons on your VCR be outlawed? Would you be committing a crime if you rewound a movie before you reached the end? This sort of lawsuit needs to be laughed out of court.

What if you get up and walk out of the room (or the theater, for that matter) in the middle of the movie? Is the DGA going to require movie theaters to lock the doors when the feature starts? I mean, I know the job description includes "detail obsessed control freak", but really!

Just sign up already. Sheesh.

I sense some folks here are blowing things a wee bit out of proportion.

To the person who muttered something about a consumer owning something the minute they buy it ... oh, really? Guess who owns the copyright? And as copyright holder, the studio/director/whomever can do what they please. Sad fact, but it keeps people in work making money.

The only reason the DGA (and, on an unrelated matter, the RIAA) keeps getting their pantyhose in knots is because *people are stealing copyrighted material*. Of course they're going to bring out their big guns and shoot down any percieved copyright infringement! What do you want them to do? Lie down and lose money?

I thought copyright was supposed to protect copyright holders from having consumers redistribute or make money from the copyrighted works.

Does copyright law say you can't shred a book that you purchased or make a coaster out of a DVD? You should be able to do anything you want with it as long as you don't redistribute the copyrighted work.

The DGA is worried about more than stealing. They are getting worked up about people buying movies and then taking them to places like CleanFlicks to have portions edited out.