Mobile DVD spins new concerns: lawmakers examine when and what drivers with in-car DVD players may watch.(News)(looking out for new rules for motorists driving with incar video systems)

Video Store, March, 2004 by Wagner, Holly J.

New technologies raise new public policy issues, and DVD is no different--especially as the format takes to the road.

States and municipalities are increasingly looking to regulate when and what motorists can watch in their cars for two primary reasons: safety and the possibility that people in other cars will be subjected to inappropriate or offensive material.

It's no laughing matter.

Erwin "Jamie" Petterson Jr. is scheduled for trial on a second-degree murder charge next month in the case of a head-on collision in which a couple died Oct. 12, 2002. Alaska authorities contend he was watching Road Trip on an in-dash DVD system, although Petterson, who also was severely injured in the wreck, has said he wasn't.

No one has...