WB offers replacements, but no refunds, for DVDs rotting prematurely

Who said you can't legally copy them? Let the stuck up DRM control freaks sell video DRM-free, then you would legally copy it. Otherwise everyone will copy it ignoring their DRM anyway.

Disk is a physical copy. Those who think it's a "representation of the license" are just luddites who cause harm to preservation of art.

Warranty is in no way predicated on issues of copyright or ability to backup. Warranty law applies to a copy of A Court of Thorns and Roses the same way it applies to a copy of Frankenstein.

Warranty is about fitness for use, merchantability, and honoring sales contracts. It has nothing to do with issues of intellectual property.

If you sold someone a book, filled with public domain content, and the ink faded after a week, you can't just throw up your hands and say that the buyer should have made another copy. You'd likely be liable for warranty of merchantability.

You are buying a DVD with the content on it. That's why it's $15 and not some sort of unlimited digital license that Netflex pays $millions for.

The fact that it's a limited license attached to the physical disc only makes my case more clear, I think. There's even less expectation that I have some claim to the content if the disc breaks in 20 years.

The seller and law say you own the book but you don't own the content of the book. That is, you are free to read the book as many times as you like, you aren't free to start printing out and distributing copies of the book as "backup" for all your friends and family.

The laws around DVDs are the same. You have a right to access and view the contents of the DVD. You don't have a right to make copies of the dvd.

I'd also point out products like cheap paperbacks which obliterate themselves after 4 or 5 reads.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for some good reforms and regulations around copyrights and media access, especially in the digital age. I just think it's a little bit ridiculous to expect purchased media to never degrade.

Buying a book doesn't give you any more rights or privileges that buying a dvd. Although I guess it's a lot easier to take a book and give all your favorite people a portion of it. You're paying for the physical object and have a license to read it or view it, but not to copy it (other than what fair use provides). Many books have an explicit statement of this on the copyright page.

But WB never made a claim about how long the DVDs should last when they were sold.

And would anyone have paid the extra money for a 20+ year warranty for some DVDs? Absolutely not.

My copy of "things fall apart" in middle school had the title, "things fall apart" printed on the spine of the book under where the cover should be.

30 years later, still sticks with me.

You aren't legally allowed to do that.

That's the point of a "copy right". That only one entity holds the legal right to make copies.

Maybe companies should be able to pick how long the warranty lasts on the media they distribute their copyrighted work on, but with the catch that the copyright ends early the same time the warranty does.

Cannot legally back up depends heavily on the specifics. For a long time (IDK about currently) it was legal to rip your own discs for backup purposes, and even to break the encryption as long as you did it yourself. So it was potentially legal but not necessarily within reach to do it legally. And that is, of course, wrong. There should never be any uncertainty about whether you can back up the media you purchased.

Saying you're "renting" the disc is just plain disingenuous, though. You own it free and clear. You can give it to anyone you like, for free or for a profit (i.e. how Netflix did things back in the day). The original owner is not asserting the right to come and take it back from you. It is in no way a rental, it is a sale.