By Sally Greenberg, Executive Director, National Consumers League

With frightening financial headlines greeting us every morning and tucking us into bed at night, many of us consumers have started taking a long, hard look at the entertainment “extras” in our budget that are often so difficult to sacrifice.

Amidst the backdrop of this troubled economy, the National Consumers League recently commissioned a survey of Americans’ entertainment habits and interests, specifically those related to their use of DVDs. In this environment, when consumer satisfaction should be more important than ever to the businesses that rely on their patronage, we wanted to find out what consumers want when it comes to how they can use their DVDs.

For years, consumers have been able to freely copy and back up the content on their compact disc collections to their hard drives and other devices. This freedom didn’t come without struggle – remember the last decade of lawsuits and consumer fear involving the sharing and copying of music files? But, in the end, consumers’ interests won out, and the freedom and mobility that consumers enjoy today with their digital music files has changed the way we travel, relax, entertain, and express ourselves.

Given the growing affordability of hard drives with the capacity to store more music and movie files than ever before, we wanted to examine whether consumers’ expectations from the CD market are translating to the consumer DVD market. We can copy our CDs; how far off are DVDs?

Consumers are currently limited by digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on most DVDs. Without illiegal ripping software, we can’t currently save the contents of most DVDs to our computers, whether for backup purposes or simply to access our DVD libraries without carrying around the actual discs (the mean number of DVDs in consumers’ collections was 77.8 discs). Some “expanded” editions of DVDs come with the ability to save an additional copy to a computer, but these editions generally come with a higher price tag.

We commissioned the study to examine consumers’ opinions related to the entertainment content stored in their DVD collections, and what we found was that consumers overwhelmingly want to do more with the DVDs they purchase. Consumers nearly unanimously think they should be able to back-up their DVDs onto computers or other devices in order to preserve their collections. Many of them, especially those with kids at home, have had to replace lost or damaged DVDs, and more than half of respondents were “bothered” that they don’t currently have the ability to back-up their DVDs.

And in an economy that is already struggling, the habits of many consumers in our survey may indicate a market slow-down ahead: more than half of respondents (55 percent) said that they are currently purchasing fewer DVDs than they did a year ago. And four in ten (41 percent) said they expect to purchase fewer DVDs one year from now.

If our entertainment budgets are shrinking, it’s more important than ever to get value from the DVDs we already own. The entertainment industry would be wise to pay attention to the attitudes and purchasing desires of the typical American consumer, who, according to our survey, is very interested in being able to back-up his or her collection. In our survey, 41 percent said the ability to save a copy of their DVDs would make their DVD collections more valuable, and 40 percent said it might cause them to buy more DVDs.

Consumers have grown accustomed to being able to do what they want, when they want, with the music products they’ve purchased, and now they’re expecting to have the same freedom with the DVDs they own. With more consumers turning to free Internet sources of entertainment, the DVD market may be in for tough times ahead. In an economy like ours, what better time than now to help consumers get more bang for their buck from products and services that may otherwise be the first to go when they are forced to tighten their belts.

Sally Greenberg is executive director of the National Consumers League, a nonprofit consumer and worker advocacy group headquartered in Washington, DC. She can be reached at sallyg@nclnet.org.

With Earth Week upon us and the official celebration of Earth Day just around the corner, many consumers are taking time to participate in observances and practices that remind us of the importance of treating our planet right.

Want a resource that summarizes the concepts and terms you need to know to understand climate change? Confused by the conflicting information you hear about our impact on climate, and climate’s impact on us? Recently, several scientific organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies have introduced a new Climate Change Literacy Brochure for the public that is easy to use and reflects the current consensus of these organizations on climate change issues.

This is a good resource that many of the 2009 LifeSmarts state champion teams across the country may be using this week to prepare for the 2009 National LifeSmarts Championship! The Environment is one of 5 major topic areas that the LifeSmarts program covers, and if we know our LifeSmarts participants, we know they are probably trying to squeeze as many last-minute hours of studying as possible before they face off in competition. We’re getting ready to head to St. Louis this week for our annual national event. Later this week, check back here and at our official LifeSmarts Web site to see how the competition unfolds!

By John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department, along with the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Attorney General of Illinois announced an unprecedented crackdown on mortgage fraud and foreclosure rescue scams. The State of Illinois filed two lawsuits and the FTC announced five new enforcement actions against companies engaged in fraudulent mortgage modification and foreclosure rescue schemes. The FTC warned dozens more companies about potentially deceptive trade practices related to such activities.

The bursting of the housing bubble has left millions of Americans searching for ways to deal with the increased costs of adjustable-rate or “balloon” loans and stave off foreclosure. Unfortunately, fraudsters see this misery as an opportunity to take advantage of desperate victims and fleece them as exactly the time these consumers can least afford it. The unfortunate reality of these scams is that thousands of consumers end up financially ruined and often out on the street.

While we certainly welcome stepped-up enforcement by federal and state authorities, we believe that such action often comes too late for victims of such scams. Who knows how many consumers could have avoiding becoming fraud statistics if they had been armed with information to help them spot these scams and take advantage of the legitimate resources available to help them negotiate with their creditors and avoid foreclosure?

With this in mind, NCL last week called on the nation’s leaders to place a renewed emphasis on consumer education to empower consumers to avoid mortgage modification, foreclosure rescue, and other forms of mortgage fraud.

Said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg:

“Recent multi-agency federal and state actions to tackle the threat of mortgage fraud are a positive step in helping to protect consumers. Fraudsters should be apprehended and brought to justice. All too often, however, victims of these schemes have already been ruined financially by the time mortgage fraud rings are broken up by law enforcement. Now, more than ever, enforcement should be tied to prevention by devoting more resources to educating consumers through churches, community centers, senior centers, schools, and libraries. This is needed particularly in vulnerable low-income, elderly, and immigrant communities, whose members are frequent targets for mortgage fraud.”

Last week, the Treasury Department stated that from July 2002 to June 2008, it had received nearly 180,000 reports suspicious activity related to potential mortgage fraud. While these statistics are shocking, it is likely that thousands more instances of such fraud go unreported. Enforcement against scammers is an important part of the fight against mortgage fraud, but it should not be the only part. For the vast majority of consumers, their homes are the biggest investment they will ever make. They should be empowered with information, through coordinated widely available consumer education efforts to avoid losing those investments to scam artists.

by Mimi Johnson

The First Family is one step closer to being locavores, after recently planting a vegetable garden on the lawn of the White House. There has not been a garden of its kind at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden during World War II. Sustainable agriculture, proponents say, is good for your health, as well as the health of the environment. First Lady Michelle Obama said she hoped this garden will help educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables, and that they will “begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.” In an age of convenience and attempts to save time, we all too often forget the satisfaction (and importance) of fresh foods. We too hope that this garden plants seeds of prevention in the minds of millions of Americans.

Even technology is getting into the game. With the Locavore 1.0 application, iPhone users can locate local, seasonal food and farmers’ markets across the country.

As the weather becomes warmer and the days longer, you might consider planting a few herbs or vegetables yourself. If your thumbs are not too green, consider taking a trip to your local farmers’ market … in addition to getting some good eats, you’ll also help support local businesses.