The RIAA's Halloween Tricks 670
deus42 writes "BoingBoing has an interesting article about a joint RIAA/MPAA move started yesterday on Capitol Hill. From the article: 'Hollywood has fielded a shockingly ambitious piece of Analog Hole legislation while everyone was out partying in costume. Under a new proposed Analog Hole bill, it will be illegal to make anything capable of digitizing video unless it either has all its outputs approved by the Hollywood studios, or is closed-source, proprietary and tamper-resistant. The idea is to make it impossible to create an MPEG from a video signal unless Hollywood approves it.'"
I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:5, Insightful)
And no matter what they do... (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, whatsoever shall we do? (Score:3, Insightful)
And this means... (Score:5, Insightful)
A modest proposal (Score:5, Insightful)
And thus... (Score:5, Insightful)
Some perspectives on...perspectives (Score:5, Insightful)
(kind of offtopic)
I sure wish the ptroleum industry was as concerned about the leaks in their distribution system as the content industry is about theirs. (11230681)
Excellent move (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
What will historians think..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And no matter what they do... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wow, whatsoever shall we do? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not just old technology. You think if they pass something like this there won't be tech all over the net that will convert/bypass/ignore the new laws. It will be a boon for Ebay and retailers outside the US. The government can't stop drug sales (illegal, perscription, performance enhancing) on the Internet, how are they going to stop illegal video cards. All rules like this do is create a black market and more criminals.
Re:And no matter what they do... (Score:2, Insightful)
We have to fight them, we can't simply assume someone else will fight for us.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:2, Insightful)
Never understimate the technical ignorance or culpability of your average congressman...nor his greed for media association $$'s for his next re-election bid.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Cracking is Illegal (Score:3, Insightful)
The media companies will (if they haven't already) make cracking a punishable offense. As it is they drag people through court that crack their schemes just to make an example of them regardless of what the local laws may/may not give them.
Better still, the corporations get to characterize them as the least desirable citizens in the court. It's just like the medical marijuana reformers vs the "war on drugs" institutions.
Blowing it off because it can be cracked just isn't the answer.
Informonopoly (Score:5, Insightful)
Soon, you won't be able to buy a new DVD or CD player, reciever, etc. that has analog inputs and outputs, since they won't be "certified". Another reason is that they (the big studios and publishing companies) really want to move over into video on demand style stuff as an industry and cut out the retailers and wholesalers and distributers who have acted as middlemen.
The ultimate goal, of course, is to control all information, entertainment or otherwise, for monetary and political gain.
Re:And no matter what they do... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Analog signals" covers more than RIAA territory. (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they trying to make life insanely difficult for student and amateur video makers?
What I don't get is that there is TONS of "analog signal" that is not RIAA-owned, so how can they legislate on it?
Or perhaps they won't, but apparently they'll make it very difficult to use the required equipment. Make life difficult for students, and you're cutting off your source of income 20 years down the road..
Isnt everything already digitized (Score:1, Insightful)
To me, this law seems like their poor attempt at stopping independent film makers(analog being cheaper to make than digital film), and to kill open source software.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Some perspectives on...perspectives (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd also like to comment that while the ACLU/EFF do a great defending our rights against moves such as this, it seems odd that the congress we elect to preserve our rights is the same congress taking money from big business to remove our rights. Does the constitution need a group of lobbyists to protect itself? With all of the supreme court moving lately I've heard a few times how some members of congress get upset when the supreme court comes in to say they've oversetpped their bounds. Waiting for the checks and balances in the system to work themselves out really seems like a pain, but it's our country and if you're going to complain make sure you stand up and fight this type of lunacy.
Find your cause and do more than comment on slashdot.
Re:Wow, whatsoever shall we do? (Score:2, Insightful)
Will the non-U.S. market want this restriction as standard?
Re:Wow, whatsoever shall we do? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the idea. In a society where breathing air is illegal, everyone, except the annointed "lawful inhalers" are criminals. Then tyrants have no difficulties in extracting obedience as all citizens are subject to arrests which are both a tool of control and "legal" at the same time. Such ubiquitous "criminality" is one of the basic components of tyranny.
"War" on drugs is a perfect example: a problem which is medical in nature has been criminalized, resulting in the US having the highest percentage of imprisoned citizens from all the nations in the world, beating places like China, USSR, Iran, North Corea or Cuba. As a bonus side effect, the drug profits have never been greater, related violent crimes never more deadly and the police apparatus never more aggressive, violent, domineering, encroaching on most basic civil rights and never better funded.
I suspect the "war" on "piracy" is heading in the same direction: total subjegation of citizenry to zealous special interests. Combine this with resurgence of retarded, violent, anti-intellectual theocracy in the USA and the trickle of scientists and others who depend on unresticted knowledge for their trade who are leaving the US now will become a deluge. USA is going the way most of the empires of the past have: self-destruction in the name of greed and religion.
Re:Excellent move (Score:5, Insightful)
Look at how many indie films have been made with consumer-level equipment. Look at the movies that are still done with hand-drawn animation or with puppets that are moved frame by frame. People can still take amazing pictures in black and white, and sometimes stylized is better than realistic or fancy, a la Sin City (ignoring the technology that went into it for effects like the splashes of color).
Technology doesn't change artistic quality. Expectations do.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:5, Insightful)
An unintended side effect might be that it might respark the true electronic hacker culture that has rather deteriorated over the last couple of decades. It used to be someone would build a radio or some electronic device from scratch based on ICs, capacitors, etc. Now some geeks think they're cool because they can attach a few IDE cables, insert some memory, and claim to have "built" a computer. Nonsense... that's not building a computer. This change in culture is why Radio Shack now sells things like cell phones, wireless phones, computers, and stereos and resistors and capacitors gets a few square feet of shelf space in the back.
But I digress... the point is that as long as resistors, capacitors, ICs, and soldering irons are sold, the analog hole will never be closed. Now, if we ever see RIAA/MPAA suceed at getting the soldering iron declared a "circumvention device", be worried--be very worried. :)
Three questions. (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Which senators and congressmen submitted this bill for consideration?
2) When are they up for reelection?
3) Where do I send a check to support their opponents?
Bitching and moaning about Hollywood trying to pull crap like this is all fine and good, but unless we PUNISH their accomplices in government, this kind of crap will just keep going and going.
So the next time these turkeys are up for election, start sending their opponents money. When you send them the money, make sure you include a little note explaining exactly WHY you're sending them money. While you're at it, send the turkey a note as well telling him that you've just sent his opponent money and why.
This isn't limited to just the people from the districts in question. I live in Arizona, but there is nothing to stop me from making a contribution to a candidate in another state. I can't take part in the official election, but I can sure as hell vote with my money. Imagine if one of the turkeys who tried to pull this crap got tens of thousands of letters from accross the country that all said the same thing: "I gave your opponent X dollars because you supported the Analog Hole bill" Meanwhile their opponents get tens of thousands of letters saying "I'm giving you X dollars because your opponent supported the Analog Hole bill, don't make the mistake he did."
Freedom is precious and fragile. It is also one of the few things in this world outside of family worth dying for. You can either fight for your freedom, or you can sit by idly and hope that things don't get any worse. Hope that someone else will pick up the tab for your liberty. Hope that the ever-present forces that seek to deny you your freedom will go away. Well guess what, they won't. If you're not fighting against them then you're actively helping them. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and it is a price that we all must pay each and every day. If you're not fighting for your freedom then you've already forfeited it.
Lee
Ah, now you understand.... (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't individuals in their bedrooms sharing albums and movies that scares the studios, it is individuals in their garages making albums and movies.
If people are free to create and distribute their own content, it does two things:
Of course, they also run the risk of small, independent producers creating content that is superior to their own. To use an analogy, the big media companies are in the same position now that the Big Three auto makers were in the early 70s. They've had a cooperative oligarchy for decades. Now there are smaller, cheaper,faster (and potentially better) competitors entering their market. Rather than compete in the new world of smaller cars and expensive gas (or, for the studios, independent content and cheap distribution), they react by lobbying for import restrictions and spreading FUD about unsafe foreign cars (or lobbying for content controls and spreading FUD about destroying the incentive to create).
They probably realize this, and they've seen what the failure to successfully lobby has done to the American car industry. Rather than choosing the alternative route and rapidly adapting to the new world, the lesson they've learned from the past is that they need to lobby more effectively.
See what happens when they "get it" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not possible (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, but that is the beauty of the situation. Since any attempt to outlaw the millions of boards already in the field would be a non-starter, they really can't try outlawing mere possession of an unlicensed encoder. Nope, they will go for their old standby and only try to outlaw importation and sales. And because of the nature of our form of government, Congress lacks the power to outlaw sales so they will go for their old standby and invoke the Commerce Clause, forbidding unFritzed boards to be sold in "Interstate Commerce". But neighbors selling to neighbors aren't engaged in Interstate Commerce and we are about to have a majority on the Supreme Court who can actually read. Interesting times ahead.
Re:"Analog signals" covers more than RIAA territor (Score:5, Insightful)
Why, of course they are. Unless they are in an MPAA sanctioned film-school, using expensive *AA sanctioned recording technology. Because we can't possibly allow an independant film-maker to make a movie which does better than a highly expensive Hollywood flop. Witness, Saw II and Zorro from this weekend.
Do you have any idea of how much money they would lose if just anyone could release a better movie than they can?
And home movies are right out. You could be at home watching little Billy win the track meet again, instead of generating revenue for them or their advertisers. What are you, a communist?
Same way they've done this all along -- "we don't care what you're doing with it, someone could, in theory rob from us. Therefore nobody gets access to the technology". Sheesh, it would be like arming terrorists or something. They basically try to cut off any arguments about legitimate contexts in which you would so this -- it's clearly a smokescreen to actually Pirate The Day After Tomorrow.
Student film-makers are too pesky. You could get someone new Like Michael Moore who points out the wickedness of the studio system. All future film-makers will be genetically engineered to give us a steady stream of gruel which has been approved by the *AA's.
Face it, in the Draconian future the *AAs envison, any technology capable of recording/transmitting either video or audio is just too dangerous to be in the hands of consumers and needs to be outlawed and controlled. I mean, we don't sell assault weapons to children, do we?
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember the jurisdiction (Score:5, Insightful)
If this kind of legislation continues to go through, the USA will end up back in the tehcnological stone age as emerging economies such as India and China overtake. Don't forget that these economies still make stuff for the west too. Does your Toyoya have all the dashboard icons in Japanese? Of course not.
There are a groing number of bands rejecting the copy protection that the labels are applying to their CDs. I'm sure the film industry will follow soon. How long before the next Hollywood blockbuster is produced by a non-USA company because they know the USA film industry's anti-consumer practices will actually harm the films success.
My only fear living here in Europe is that our brain-dead politicians will follow suit with the USAs practices. There's still a lot of work to do to make sure we don't.
McCarthy's legacy (Score:3, Insightful)
DMCA anyone?! (Score:2, Insightful)
CEA and other tech reps from that time speak about it now with great regret..
You, sir, are living in a dream world if you think this bill will fail if not strongly opposed.
The last one gave these "A holes" almost complete regulatory control over software and consumer electronic developers.
Re:And no matter what they do... (Score:4, Insightful)
After their market has imploded and most of the big players' bottom lines got slaughtered, they will be more likely to quit their unsightly and futile holy war.
I do not mind living without TV and movies until then... like have mostly already been doing for the past 5+ years.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're going to troll, at least know what you're talking about, because the gross injustices we now have to deal with were instituted during the Clinton administration. I'm not specifically blaming Clinton, and I'm not defending Bush. However, when you blame everything under the sun on Bush, then it kind of raises the nose floor and no one listens when people talk about things Bush really *has* done.
NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ownership rights. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Excellent move (Score:1, Insightful)
Ooooh, well, unless they put this shrinkwrap EULA on all consumer video cameras:
NOTICE: This product contains Intellectual Property (IP) owned by CameraFabCo, Inc. CameraFabCo agrees to lease this IP to you for the life of the product if and only if you agree to the following stipulations. You WILL NOT use this product for commercial production or financial gain in any way. Should you, intentionally or unintentionally, make money from the use of this product, please mail the product and all packaging, manuals, etc, back to CameraFabCo or turn yourself in to the police.
Yeah, that oughta do it.
Re:Not possible (Score:3, Insightful)
But the problem is not technical - the board would be illegal.
Assuming this bit of nonsense were to get anywhere (which it won't), I think you could still sell kits without any problem. It's a bit like with homebrew -- it's illegal for a shop to sell alcohol to a minor but there's nothing wrong with a shop selling to a minor barley malt, hops, yeast, corn sugar, fermenting bins, airlocks, bottles, caps, capper, and a whole range of books on the fine art of zymology.
Similarly, it would be illegal to sell a device that captures an analog video signal to a digital format, but it would not be illegal to sell breadboards, DSPs, coaxial/component jacks, solder, etc.
Nevertheless, this is just a proposal from an industry lobbyist -- the kind of thing that happens all the time in Washington. It isn't a bill, and if by some miracle it becomes a bill, it will never make it out of committee. Remember, electronics manufacturers also have some pretty powerful lobbyists, and there's no way that they will let Hollywood dictate design and engineering decisions.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, the guys at radio shack already look at me like they're about to call the FBI when I go in to purchase 10 resistors and a few capacitors, along with a couple DB9 connectors to make an RS232 terminator. That's on top of the fact that the guy didn't even know he carried that stuff. He says to me, "looks like someone's building a HAM radio". Ya, no kidding. What he's really wondering is if I'm building a bomb to take out a few city blocks.
So anyway, now if it's illegal to build a device to record video, but a bunch of "electronics hackers" start going out to do it, am I going to be lumped in with them too? Are they going to be raiding surplus electronics stores with stashes of old camcorders tucked away on shelves in the back? Is anyone who tinkers with fundamental electronic components going to be on a government watch list? (Is that why radio shack asks for your phone number when you buy batteries?)
This is some scary stuff. Americans are so concerned about the right to bear arms, but I really think that if you ever plan to overthrow the government in the future, electronic components for communications and such are going to be just as important as bullets and grenades.
Re:Just a reminder (Score:3, Insightful)
Untrue. Many people rely on medications of one sort or another to keep them alive and narcotic addicts generally have a physical dependancy on the products.
Bottom line is it's all about FREEDOM. Most things you and I do every day we don't HAVE to do, does that make them any less important to our quality of life? Thing is about this article, it goes beyond the idea of piracy. If Hollywood controls what people can see is, that not a violation of our basic rights. Shouldn't the average citizen have just as much right to create and distribute content as Hollywood does? The whole purpose behind this proposition is to control the content by controlling the hardware. I don't want to give our government or any particular special interest group that kind of control over our society.
Re:Remember the jurisdiction (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember... this legislation is being pushed on behalf of the pursuit of the almighty dollar. I assume that your politicians like money as well as ours (be it euros or pounds).
As goes the USA, so goes the world (eventually). Maybe less so that before, but still...
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:3, Insightful)
No it's not, and you're missing the point. Back in the '80s the "analog hole" was closed when commercial VHS movies started using MacroVision to prevent casual copying of tapes. Yes, you could go to the back of PopSci and find an ad for a stabilizer, but by and large the vast majority of people didn't bother the extra bucks. They stopped copying and either bought or rented.
The same applies here. In "raising the bar" you don't need to stop everyone. You just have to make ripping you off hard enough that the majority doesn't bother.
Re:Digitize this, (Score:2, Insightful)
come on
ANY deivce that turns analog video into a digital signal. That includes the Pinacle and Hauppage video input deives, as in the ones poeple use to take THEIR home movies and make them into files on their computer. Just because Hollywood movies can be done the same, doesn't mean every device should be illegal. Christ Sakes. Just because a car is mechanically capable of going past the speed limit, does it mean we make its manufacture illegal? MPAA, leave video capture devices alone. It's not the creation of pirated materials thats the problem its the distrobution. Just because you make it hard to copy, means fewer people are going to figure it out, that doesn't effect the real problem, because now those few people are using networks to spread the "contraband." So now, its still to everyone it just propigated a different way!
**This is something the MPAA needs to leave well enough alone, home video capture devices. OMG!**
$%^Does anyone have a Online Petition started yet? Post the link!^%$
Amen (Score:3, Insightful)
But let's bring it down to the level of the every day. Good candidates for office are out there. They're constantly hurting for money, but even more than that, expert help. If you can give either, it is your duty to do so. Many Slashdotters will think nothing of spending $5/day on coffee. Multiply that by a five day work week and you're spending $1,250/yr. on coffee. For that price, you can give a real shot in the arm to the fine aspiring public servant of your choice. A city council race in NYC, for example, typically has a budget of $20K. Forego your daily cup of joe and you can single-handedly account for 5% of a great candidate's warchest. And suddenly you'll have someone representing you who will keep your streets patched, your neighborhood regularly patrolled and cleaned, and larger, abstract things like affordable housing defended. And if you can take the Board of Elections data, crunch it into a list of likely voters, and help your candidate allocate his/her resources efficiently, then you've saved them the $25K it costs to procure the leading commercial software solution.
In short, the power to create change/improvement in the political scene is eminently in your hands. And like all things, the better the candidates you help elect to local office, the finer the pool of choices you have when fighting for higher state and federal offices. After all, there are always outliers who go from zero to Congress in one try, but mostly it works like a farm team system.
Think about it, consider, and act. If you don't, the schmuck who lives down the street who's out to screw you and everyone else certainly will, and you will be very, very unhappy with the result.
Fight, that's what. (Score:3, Insightful)
I kept bitching on sites like Slashdot for years and ultimately found it uniquely unsatisfying. Nothing changed. So 18 months ago I started a grassroots political organization in New York. 8 months ago there was a reform package put before the state legislature that had the audacity to require legislators to actually be present to vote, and many, many other good things. One of our state assemblypeople in NYC came out four-square against the reforms. So I gathered four people from our organization, went out on a Saturday and handed out 300 flyers in 2.5 hours in front of 2 supermarkets in the woman's district. Our 300 flyers generated roughly 80 phone calls to the lawmaker in question. Her chief of staff left a message on our machine the next day calling us all kinds of unholy names. But in the end she did a 180 and voted for the reforms.
Point? I did it, and you can too. Easily. So do. Go out and do.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:1, Insightful)
Choice selection. The President still is considered the last buck. Otherwise, it was the Republican Congress that watched over that totally unreal economic growth that was the late to mid 90s, the same one the Dems say Clinton oversaw...you think Gingrich and his overthrowers maintained that? How rather polite of you to agree.
Also, since you probably didn't bother to know this or look it up, Clinton signed both bills into law happily and with ceremony. Congress may pass bills, but the Prez still gets last crack at which become law. Clinton thought they were both deserving. He could veto'd or not signed them (in which case they still pass unless the last date ends on a Sunday, in which case it's a pocket veto), but he approved of each actively.
Somehow, the fact that the Republicans have whooped the Dems in Congress more or less over the past decade doesn't mean the Democrats disapproved or were impotent to stop either from passing. Look at the vote count on each's approval; Democrat party reps contributed hugely to both passing.
btw, Congresses technically, not singular ('a Republican Congress'). Changes a little every 2 years.
"The same shady individuals who are still running the legislative branch of the government...."
Which shady individuals? You stereotyping is quite un-Democratic party of you, not to mention you seem to overlook Clinton's role but attack George W.'s for his. They hold the same position, or are you (gasp) putting up a double-standard?
Also, Reps may still be running the House I think (I forget if they've held it consistently over the last 9 years or not); definitely still not in the Senate, given the change of one of the Vermont (I think) Senators to Independent during Bush's first term and I believe they overtook the Senate after 9/11, where it had been Dem run. So not "still."
Re:See what happens when they "get it" (Score:3, Insightful)
Methinks you're liable to get trapped in your own analogy.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:4, Insightful)
And all of which ignores the real problem. If a bunch of instant-gratification idiots didn't think they were entitled to anything and everything they could get their hands on, we wouldn't be in this mess. All it does is give the **AA's all the justification they need to have these ridiculous laws passed.
A bunch of freeloaders are screwing up MY fair use rights and MY consumer products. And because, like you, they think they're smart enough to game the system, they're going to screw up P2P, torrents, Freenet, and probably the internet itself.
You're right in one thing. It is futile.
Here's a question for you. . . (Score:2, Insightful)
Doesn't it occur to them that the only people this will stop are the people who already don't pirate music and movies because it's illegal?
No difference between Republicans and Democrats. (Score:3, Insightful)
Have a positive outlook (Score:2, Insightful)
Quite seriously, that's what I think will end up happening. The law must get so tough and so bloated, that someone will challenge the Constitutionality of it, and all of the laws will be struck down. If it gets really bad and people are pissed off enough, Constitutional Amendments can be made, but that'd be really really really pissed off to the nth degree, as n approaches infinity. Based on what these greedy bastards are capable of, that may just happen. Content is content. An idea becomes public when it leaves one's mind. The only "intellectual property" I claim to own is the functioning brain inside of my head. I have the right to do with it what I want, and no one can coerce me or compel me to do with it what I need. Sadly, this property is being stolen, while public property is being plundered. Artists are screwed by big cartels; the real intellectual property is raped while pseudo-property is given rights, so that an elite can benefit and profit. Sounds like an oligarchy to me. As a result, talent isn't valued, consumerism is rampant, and "American culture" is a contradiction.
Re:I don't know which is more ridiculous... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps. I think finding the sourrce of an MPEG or MP3 is substantially harder than backtracking virus propagation.
If a bunch of instant-gratification idiots didn't think they were entitled to anything and everything they could get their hands on, we wouldn't be in this mess. All it does is give the **AA's all the justification they need to have these ridiculous laws passed.
Doesn't matter. Even if the "instant-gratification idiots" shouldn't do what they do, that doesn't make it ok or reasonable for the **AA to do what they try to do. The laws won't be passed to achieve the goals the **AA want and even if they are, they tend to have the opposite effect by forcing customers to get the ripped MP3 (so they can use it on their MP3 player) off the Internet.
Again, if I normally buy CDs, rip them, and load them on my MP3 player... then all the sudden it's no longer possible to rip my CDs... am I going to stop using my MP3 player? No, of course not. I'm going to get my MP3s from wherever I can find MP3s... and if that's on P2P, that's where I'm going. Now the only question is whether people will be so ethical as to bother buying a CD (that they'll never use) for every MP3 they download. I doubt they will.
A bunch of freeloaders are screwing up MY fair use rights and MY consumer products.
BULLSHIT! The **AA is trying to screw with your fair use rights. Yes, they're doing to in an irrational response to freeloaders but that does NOT make the **AA justified in screwing with fair use rights. They (the **AA) need to find a way to be profitable within the limits of the law and within the scope of current technology or find something else to do.
And because, like you, they think they're smart enough to game the system, they're going to screw up P2P, torrents, Freenet, and probably the internet itself.
Not at all. There are growing pains, of course, and the RIAA (I have more problems with the RIAA than with the MPAA) will try to stick to its old, obsolete model as much as possible for as long as possible. But it's a lost cause. Technology has made their very existence virtually obsolete. Yes, they'll try to screw with P2P, torrents, and everything else in an effort of self-preservation. And they may have limited success for a limited amount of time, but it's a fight they cannot win. In my opinion, it's a fight they shouldn't win.
Regardless of the laws that are passed, the RIAA is doomed. The RIAA formed at a time when bands needed them to get their music out and customers needed them to get the music from. Neither the bands nor the customers need them anymore. That's the simple reality. The RIAA survives only on inertia and they can only do that for a limited amount of time. Some amount of spasms, kicks, and groans from the industry is to be expected as it dies.
Trick or Treat! (Score:3, Insightful)
This law, in a nutshell, applies to any device that can convert analog video into digital video. This is the video version of the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), with some added goodies. Any analog to digital conversion device - or vice versa, apparently - produced after the law goes into effect will have to be approved under Hollywood's standards by the USPTO. Among these standards are mandated DRM, as well as a nifty little requirement stating that the device must be proprietary and completely closed, thereby making it substantially more difficult to modify. Content converted from an analog format to a digital format will be encased in DRM, and any unprotected output, digital or otherwise, will be constricted heavily. (In other words, ugly as sin.) It mandates highly invasive and restrictive DRM, plain and simple, and everything therein that applies will become law.
This is about more than piracy, people. This is about killing technology, just like how the AHRA killed DAT. If you're a content producer or marketer, and you control this kind of technology, you control who can compete with you. They're on a technological tirade, and any device which could possibly be used to erode away at their market share will be eliminated. Only approved commercial institutions will have access to unrestricted 'professional' devices. (A device, under this law, becomes 'professional' once it's widely available.) Just as the AHRA stopped DAT dead in its tracks, this is a new control mechanism for DV. While it seems to only apply to devices that could theoretically pirate analog content in a digital format or vice versa, will this affect those who wish to record and publish their own videos? Almost certainly. They wouldn't field a bill like this unless there wasn't an anticompetitive kicker in there for them.
If these rapaciously greedy, bottom feeding, subhumanly mentally deficient piles of animated scum manage to get this law passed, it'll mean big trouble, not only for consumers, but producers as well. There is absolutely no sense in it whatsoever. None. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. As an aspiring innovator, this is the kind of garbage that causes my hair to stand on end. This is the kind of law that, upon reading it, causes me to enter a state of mind wherein my number one priority is to beat the living shit out of the nearest handy inanimate object of similar size and composition to a human body, so I don't track down these sneering assholes and wail on them instead. Cheesy as it is, The Rock said it best: "Know your role, and shut your mouth." The AA's need to take that statement to heart, sit down, and shut the fuck up.
What's next? Outlawing any 'improfessional' application of P2P protocols while forcing anyone who owns a streaming radio or video site on the internet to file comprehensive broadcasting reports with the FCC to ensure they're not playing copyrighted content? Or maybe a law that makes it illegal to distribute multimedia via a wireless connection, along with mandated DRM baked into every WiFi card! The possibilities are just endless with these people. Given their track record, I'd highly advise putting anything past them.
Of the modded comments (Score:2, Insightful)
Does nobody see that this bill is not INTENDED to pass? It is intended to be too extreme to pass, so they'll tone it down to what they really want, which is just the basic broadcast flag, and it won't seem as extreme as it really is.
Re:And no matter what they do... (Score:3, Insightful)
Because that's what we geeks do when people don't have the knowledge we do... we make fun of them. That's why so many people like us.
Hey, why not buy her a copy of Free Culture?