Fark.com | Obnoxious new anti-piracy warnings make DVD buying worse. For you younger folks: DVDs were hardcopies of digitized films that you couldn’t legally transfer electronically. Strange, I know

Fark.com | Obnoxious new anti-piracy warnings make DVD buying worse. For you younger folks: DVDs were hardcopies of digitized films that you couldn’t legally transfer electronically. Strange, I know.

The MPAA and the DHS have teamed up to increase the punishment meted out to people who buy their DVDs instead of downloading the same movies for free from the Internet. Now when you buy a DVD, you’ll get twice as many unskippable anti-piracy warnings, including one with a Homeland Security Investigations “special agent” badge next to the FBI badge, as well as a screen telling you that “digital theft harms the economy” and inviting you to visit a taxpayer-funded website that parrots a bunch of unsubstantiated lobbynomics numbers that the MPAA pulled out of its ass.

Only MPAA members are licensed to use these government logos, because other studios are apparently not entitled to a share of whatever imaginary protection the DHS is extending here.