The Media Consumer's Bill of Rights

I told my guests today on Naked Media, designer Roger Black and Complex Media CEO Rich Antoniello, that I had started to draft a (half-joking) “media consumer’s bill of rights.” They asked me to share it with them. I have. And here I’m sharing it with you:

THE MEDIA CONSUMER'S BILL OF RIGHTS

AS A MEDIA CONSUMER, I DESERVE:

• TO BE ABLE TO RECORD SOMETHING -- ANYTHING -- IN ONE ROOM AND CONSUME IT IN ANOTHER ROOM, WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY EXTRA
• TO READ ANYTHING I'M READING ON WHATEVER I CHOOSE TO READ IT ON -- WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY OVER AND OVER AND OVER. KINDLE, E-BOOK, PRINT, BLACKBERRY, WHATEVER! LET ME SWITCH AROUND!
• TO CHOOSE WHETHER TO WATCH ADS AND GET SOMETHING FOR FREE, OR PAY TO GET IT WITHOUT THE ADS
• TO HAVE THE ADS SHOW FOR LESS TIME THAN THE PROGRAMMING (OR AT LEAST FOR IT TO FEEL THAT WAY)
• TO NEVER FEEL GOUGED FOR THE MEDIA I PAY FOR ($20 for a CD? $50 for a DVD? When you’ve already made a big profit and it costs you maybe a couple bucks to manufacture, distribute and promote? C'mon.)
• TO (OH, HORROR!) BE ABLE TO SAMPLE IT ALL AT THE LIBRARY.
• AND , FINALLY, TO BE ABLE TO CONNECT ALL MY MEDIA DEVICES AND MOVE PROGRAMMING AROUND ON THEM -- AS EASILY AS I CAN NOW DRAG AND DROP TEXT FILES.

I’m sure I’ll think of more -- next time I’m trying to hook up a Windows laptop to an Apple computer and play something back on a set-top box with some sort of S-video to-coax cable work-around, while cussing and twitching.
But I’d love to hear yours.
REALLY

PS The media professional's bill of rights, I guess, would be the right to break any and all of the above any time the professional can find a business model to justify it; alienated consumers notwithstanding.