MPAA Pushes Once Again To Close the Analog Hole 275
Tyler Too writes "The MPAA is once again trying to badger the FCC into approving Selectable Output Control, which would plug the 'analog hole' during broadcasts of some prerelease HD movies. MPAA bigshots met with seven staffers from the FCC Media Bureau last week, calling the petition a 'pro-consumer' (!) move designed to 'enable movie studios to offer millions of Americans in-home access to high-value, high definition video content.' At least the studios are now acknowledging that SOC would break the functionality of some HDTVs, an admission they were previously unwilling to make: 'What's interesting about the group's latest filing, however, is that it effectively concedes that the output changes it wants could, in fact, hobble some home video systems. "The vast majority of consumers would not have to purchase new devices to receive the new, high-value content contemplated by MPAA's" request, the group assures the FCC.'"
Like any partially treated wart (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Like any partially treated wart (Score:5, Funny)
How do you deal with that problem?
Cut off the head.
(aims sniper rifle)
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(aims sniper rifle)
That's not the head, that's a puppet. Money is controlling this abomination.
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Eventually they won't be able to get people to do it if everyone before them has been killed.
Money is a tool, it doesn't control anything, people do.
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A less-messy solution is to amend the People's Constitution:
Amendment __ : "Strike the phase 'exclusive Right'. Replace with 'temporary privilege'."
Re:Like any partially treated wart (Score:5, Insightful)
A less-messy solution is to amend the People's Constitution:
Amendment __ : "Strike the phase 'exclusive Right'. Replace with 'temporary privilege'."
The law already says "for limited Times" which ostensibly means temporary, but the Supreme Court turned that into toilet paper by upholding serial term extensions in Eldred v. Ashcroft. An amendment to outlaw perpetual copyright on the installment plan would have to explicitly outlaw legislative extensions of the term of a subsisting copyright.
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If they strike down a statute that has an explicitly limited extension, they're guilty of judicial activism.
Would a reading as "copyrights have the term that they had when the work was first published" have been too activist?
Re:Like any partially treated wart (Score:4, Interesting)
So what does temporary mean, "forever less a day?" The constitution already provides for a "limited" time, and the forever less a day is effectively the argument that has won to date.
Really the best strategy regarding copyright duration is something like this:
a) an author receives an initial copyright for a period of 10 years. No formalities required.
b) between years 10-15 (term + 5 year grace period), and author with sufficient interest in maintaining the copyright should have to i) register the copyright, and ii) pay some less than nominal fee. The copyright will continue for an additional 30 years (a total of 40 years).
c) thereafter, the author pays an increasing amount for each additional 30 year period.
d) the copyright automatically expires on the 100th year.
This has lots of benefits: 1. everyone gets a copyright in their works without any formalities. 2. If it is economically viable after 10 years, they can pay a nominal amount and register it (no more orphan works). 3. It will last for most every author's lifetime and then some. 4. It puts works that an author no longer considers valuable into the public domain in relatively short order.
Re:Like any partially treated wart (Score:5, Insightful)
Please do no present your rational and reasonable ideas on copyright. Clearly we have all moved beyond rational thought.
Think about who lobbies Congress on this issue, mega-Corporations that have everything to lose if they don't have perpetual copyrights. It's easily worth a few million to buy off Congressmen and Senators to guarantee unending copyrights that could generate billions over the years.
Corporations have taken over America.
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Regardless of what the auth^H^H^H^Hcorporation who owns the copyright does, allowing copyright for a century is insane. Statistically speaking, that's longer than my school-age children will live. Which part of "temporary" is so confusing?
Re:Like any partially treated wart (Score:5, Insightful)
b) between years 10-15 (term + 5 year grace period), and author with sufficient interest in maintaining the copyright should have to i) register the copyright, and ii) pay some less than nominal fee. The copyright will continue for an additional 30 years (a total of 40 years).
This "less than nominal fee" will be the next version of the RIAA/MPAA, here, waive all your rights to it and we will keep renewing your copyright because you can't afford it! Plus 30 years is too long, especially in the age of digital copies, lets see here, 30 years ago was 1979, assuming your hardware still works, most data will need to be painstakingly recovered using hard-to-find/expensive equipment, the data will then need to be read and then most certainly will need to have an emulator written in order to run the programs.
c) thereafter, the author pays an increasing amount for each additional 30 year period.
Again, it leads to new forms of the RIAA/MPAA in the future in order to pay for these.
1. everyone gets a copyright in their works without any formalities.
This is not necessarily a good thing. This leads to traps where someone might have came up with something, put it on the internet, you never read it but you make something similar and they accuse you of plagiarism.
2. If it is economically viable after 10 years, they can pay a nominal amount and register it (no more orphan works).
The same thing will happen, just with a large publisher with a huge sum of cash. The copyright never falls into the public domain, the artists get screwed and orphan works (as in works that are never released but still have copyright on them) still happen.
3. It will last for most every author's lifetime and then some.
Again, how is this a benefit? Look at Shakespeare's works, most of them were adapted from works that would still be under copyright if your system had been in place when he was alive. It is a natural part of art to borrow and adapt.
4. It puts works that an author no longer considers valuable into the public domain in relatively short order.
Which in general it won't. While the every day chatter of the internet would go into the public domain, if an artist doesn't think something is worthwhile they won't publish it. If it isn't published it isn't copyrighted, even after their deaths if someone takes it and publishes it they still have the copyright from when they publish it.
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This is not necessarily a good thing. This leads to traps where someone might have came up with something, put it on the internet, you never read it but you make something similar and they accuse you of plagiarism.
So what? There is no legal liability attached to plagiarism; copyright infringement is the only legal issue. Plagiarism is merely a moral, ethical issue that share elements of copyright infringement. And to your example, copyright infringement has a defense of independent creation. Among other things, the author would have to show access to the "infringed" work.
The same thing will happen, just with a large publisher with a huge sum of cash. The copyright never falls into the public domain, the artists get screwed and orphan works (as in works that are never released but still have copyright on them) still happen.
Of all the works in the world, works owned by a "large publisher with a huge sum of cash" is likely the minority of all copyrights.
Besides, the poi
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Right, that was the "artificial scarcity" I mentioned. Disney is the epitome of that.
Hence the need for an "orphaned work" provision. If you lock the work up for a couple of years and don't demonstrate any effort to profit from it, then you lose your right to prevent others from profiting from it.
Do they mean.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Do they mean.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Yeah, simple encryption was already quite visible in the 2000 film Memento (the plot played backwards), but later dropped for the more secure, random key plot you mention.
Re:Do they mean.. (Score:5, Funny)
.noitpyrcne LTR dellac s'ti - thgiarts stcaf ruoy teG
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No, it wasn't encrypted. It just was, as the title promised, a quantum story. Since you cannot observe the complete quantum state, quantum things usually don't seem to make sense to the classical mind.
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Precisely. Viewing it changed the state.
In fact, if you watch it again and again, you come to different conclusions. Unless you're not really watching it, in which case you're not really observing the state, and so while it doesn't change, you wouldn't know that.
You do know that Physics is intended to make sense out of nothing. And it seems to work well for that.
Re:Do they mean.. (Score:5, Funny)
Oxymoron (Score:5, Insightful)
"High-value content ?!"
MPAA, listen closely: when it comes to TV, there is no such thing.
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"High-value content ?!"
MPAA, listen closely: when it comes to TV, there is no such thing.
I think you have made the mistake of assuming that they "listen".
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"High-value content ?!"
MPAA, listen closely: when it comes to TV, there is no such thing.
I think you have made the mistake of assuming that they "listen".
And they make the mistake of thinking that we must watch.
Re:Oxymoron (Score:4, Informative)
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Please define high value content. Is it the value the ack-ack's place upon what they consider to be high value, or is the the value the artists place on their works?
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Why buy it? I don't.
Disclaimer: I've never been a "consumer", so I can't understand why people who appear to be normal accept being referred to as "consumers", or why they run out and purchase every moronic bit of shit they see in a commercial.
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If you equal "cost" or "price" to "value", then yes.
In the view of the MPAA, "high-value" probably means "content that will generate lots of money". Not anything related to artistic merit.
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Price rarely equates to value and with monopoly protected products far less so. The whole point monopoly rights lies in the ability to control price without competition, and avoiding market discovery of the equilibrium point of value, when the price of non-scarce goods like the MPAA products would otherwise fall towards zero. The value to individual buyers on the other hand may lie anywhere above the sale price for the deals that do happen and anyway below the sale price for the deals that are foregone.
Of c
Re:Oxymoron (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was worth watching I would have watched in the the Cinema .....since it is on TV it is either old hat, or is about to go straight to DVD ... neither is High Value ...
I live in the UK so if this ever comes here they will discover that besides a flat fee TV licence, most people do not pay for TV at all ....and it is generally good quality
There is very little "high value" content that people can be bothered to pay for ... except for live broadcasts ....
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As an American, I wish that I could pay for a UK license (last I checked, I can't) and receive the shows you get. It's definitely better quality than MOST of the stuff that airs here.
We have 500 channels, 480 of which are probably showing some damn infomercial at this moment.
Nonsense (Score:2, Funny)
Of course there is.
Who wouldn't pay big money to see Big Brother or the Jerry Springer show in high definition 3D surround sound with extensive commentary on every second of the show?
The key problem right now is that the MPAA can't close it's A***** Hole, so you're getting crap quality. If the MPAA were able to convince the FCC to close the MPAA's A***** Hole, there would be a lot of fresh new talent out there.
I still have my Super VHS camcorder (Score:5, Interesting)
No it isn't "HD" but it does provide a nice clear DVD quality image (640x480) which is good enough for most people. Heck even blurry 320x240 ipod downloads are good enough, since most of what Hollywood makes is crap anyway. It might as well look as bad as it plays.
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Not to mention that they'll need to patch the digital hole. Before the big breakthroughs on AACS/BD+ there were HDCP breakers and HDMI capture cards to make pure digital copies, even though it had to be transcoded since it was already decoded. AACS/BD+ isn't totally broken in that AnyDVD must release new versions of the decrypting tool but HDCP is, just like CSS is for DVDs. There's no fixing that without replacing every HDMI and DVI/HDCP connection out there.
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Heck, like many other problems, you can just throw a little less money than they are extorting out of you to solve the problem.
For $180, you can begin get a HDMI to Component converter. [hdtvsupply.com] It's not as cheap as those other solutions but it's still cheaper than running out to get your MPAA approved device.
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Sorry, those are only for un-encrypted content.
Future Post (Score:5, Funny)
posted by eldavojohn (898314) * on 2060.09.04 9:05
So, being an old man, I thought I would go legit and get all of my path transmitters MPAA approved. I already had the Z-Ray player that has a 128 core processor to handle all the Z Discs and decrypt the DRM but I spent the extra $50 on the MPAA approved cord from that to my MPAA approved TV (which already has a 256 core processor to hand the encryption). Once all that was in place, I made the big purchase. It was only $100 to have an MPAA approved zoning specialist come in and stake off and area of my living approved by the MPAA for me and my family to view their copyrighted material in. Once that was complete, I got triplicate signoff on a form that allowed me to pay $500 to install two units on either side of the room that emit some sort of crazy field so that the photons leaving my MPAA TV unit can be seen normally within the MPAA designated zone in my living room. It's really neat to stand outside it and see static and then step inside and see it perfectly. You also have to put on headphones (only one set) to hear the sound because they haven't found a similar technology for it yet. Whatever it is that those things generate sure is strong. If the dog gets too close to one of them, it shits itself and walks in circles for about an hour. Also, you can't have metal things on you otherwise they heat up and burn you.
But a couple thousand later and I can finally sit back and not worry about being prosecuted. You guys are all chumps for not enjoying this sort of MPAA certified technology!
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I wouldn't worry about it too much.
There will always be hackers cracking this stuff so we can enjoy the content however we please. And there will always be copyright infringers willing to share more user friendly copies.
Sooner or later they'll realize that forcing a more unpleasant experience on their legal users is not a good business model. Probably about the same time they go out of business completely.
Re:Future Post (Score:4, Funny)
posted by noodlesoupeaternoodlesoupeater (1093892093) * on 2060.09.04 9:10
Splarg! u kinna spella wut-is 128 core processor? We use powers o 10 in CS, Mr anchent. roundup maths. u men 130 cor cpu! Splarg ina half! ROFLOLMAOWTFBBQSTWKKA!!1!!
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Ages ago? Man. You've missed some rather interesting shows that might appeal to your nerdier side.
I'll just say "Good Eats" and leave it at that.
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Normally, I don't respond to AC. This time, you're insulting Alton Brown.
Pray tell me how one is going to learn a technique that has never been seen? Reading and pictures are all fun and good. But if you really want to learn it, you watch someone else do it then you try it.
No no...You don't know jack shit about Good Eats or the reason Alton Brown started it, do you?
I can honestly say I never really enjoyed making food until I watched Good Eats. Now, I make meals that are delicious because I learned somethi
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Won't happen. It'd be as stupid as to say everyone that is listening to music are chumps, that they should all play instruments themselves or find something else worthwhile to do. Or those that read books instead of writing them. Being told a good story is fun - that you don't see it is your loss, not mine. Of course there's crap series, crap movies too but I don't have a problem sorting out the lemons.
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More heavy-handed every day (Score:5, Insightful)
Just once I would like to know what it was like to have a government that represented me, and told the MPAA/RIAA to shut *its* hole. Unfortunately, with the Democrats beholden to Hollywood, and the Republicans beholden to big business, it's likely that the MPAA/RIAA will get whatever they ask for in the end.
If their DRM only effected pirates, it would be one thing. But at this point, the DRM is becoming so oppressive that it's having a negative effect on those of us who *try* to be honest. When I have to crack my player just to be able to skip 10 minutes of mandatory commercials at the beginning of a DVD/blu-ray, that's a sad day. I have already refused to pay for any more movie tickets because of this--I'll be damned if I'm paying $10 to sit through a bunch of TV commercials at the beginning of a movie (anyone remember when the beginning of a movie had a cartoon and a couple of trailers, and *NO* soda or car commercials?). Now the DMCA has turned me into a criminal just because I insist on controlling the $20 disc I legitimately *bought*.
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Just to add to your point, FYI, according the MPAA you haven't bought anything.
Next they will try to figure out a system where you pay more if more than one person is in the room viewing the disk.
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Who is the customer? (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies who lose sight of who the real customer is often die - a slow, lingering demise, but terminal nonetheless.
Methinks the great failing of Vista (and M$'s overall strategy flaw) was that M$ decided the customer is Dell (and other huge-volume buyers), IT departments, and DRM-lusting IP/content owners - forgetting that the real customer is each user clicking their way around the screen. Result: some 50% of Apple users are new to the product line, happy to put up with Jobs as a benevolent dictator who cares about their experience, happy to escape being treated as a mere marketing resource of eyeballs and wallets.
So long as we still have some technological liberties, someone will realize who the customer really is, serve them, and be rewarded - and drive **AA & government control out.
Re:Who is the customer? (Score:4, Interesting)
The current state of consumer ignorance about technology allows this type of corporate abuse. At least part of the solution is education. Tough because you have a populace that for the most part doesn't care until they get burnt with a DRM restriction.
The second part of the double whammy though is government and big media in bed with the corporate approved POV on this.
Still... someday the DRM crap will be pushed so far as to cause a critical mass and there will suddenly be "outraged" people on CNN talking about it... but we're going to be deep in the crap pile by then.
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It is worse than that when the DRM kicks in most people assume they have done something wrong and it is their fault it doesn't work.
To be honest I just don't bother now, I have plenty of things to do that don't involve sitting watching a box.
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To be honest I just don't bother now, I have plenty of things to do that don't involve sitting watching a box.
Like going online and sitting watching a monitor.
Re:Who is the customer? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Apple has an uphill battle, but it is winnable. Just look at the bottled water industry to find out how to sell a product that most people can get free or nearly free.
Re:More heavy-handed every day (Score:5, Insightful)
If their DRM only effected pirates...
Ah, but their onerous DRM does effect piracy: It creates new pirates where there weren't any previously!
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Re:More heavy-handed every day (Score:5, Informative)
>If their DRM only effected pirates,
DRM has nothing to do with pirates. The goal of DRM is to give the content providers full control of the distribution system, right up until the point where the light hits your eyeballs (and I doubt they'll stop once they get that far). Ideally, they would want every viewer to pay every time their content is heard or viewed, but for now they'll settle for ensuring that every view is through an approved path that they have been directly compensated for. This ensures that people aren't using content in any non-approved manner, regardless of whether such non-approved use is legal. The pirates may be inconvenienced, but they will continue to operate. The real payoff is in convincing the public that following the **AA's mandates is perfectly acceptable, thus allowing them to do as they please with home entertainment, without regard for individual rights.
This is a dangerous path to go down, but we're already a fair way along and there seems to be no way back. HDMI and Firewire are already locked down, so it's not surprising that they want to turn off component. Regardless of their "pre-DVD release" example cited in the article, it is clear that if this is allowed, it would be applied to all HD content across the board by default, except where otherwise required by law (e.g., DTCP). From there, it's only a small step to disabling SD video altogether (after all, everyone has an approved HD viewing device now, right?).
The biggest threat to this industry isn't the pirates, it's a population that believes that how they view content should be up to them and not dictated by a higher power. This is the mentality that allows people to justify turning to piracy when the legal route is too difficult. Rather than making the legal route easier (as the music industry seems to have figured out in only a decade or so), the MPAA is committed to creating a world where they are an altruistic god showering the people with "high-value content," asking only for our money and obedience in return. The scariest part is the thought that some of the people in control might actually believe that what they are doing is for the public good.
It's actually pretty obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
Look at the name, they called it exactly what it was. Digital Rights Management: a system by which the rights of a user to in any way use a digital signal are managed. Whether that signal's passing from DVD player to screen, torrent file to hard drive, .avi on a CD to your college roommate, or NAS in the basement to the laptop propped up on your knees in bed; the RIAA has made it very clear that they want to (and, to a degree, have been able to) control the way the set of bits representing a work of art, that they feel they own, is used. DRM has never been about stopping pirates because that would be too limiting of a concept. Why put all this effort into stopping pirates when they can stop other small nuisances that *IAAs have probably never quite liked - things like lending DVDs to neighbours,
The biggest threat to this industry isn't the pirates, it's a population that believes that how they view content should be up to them and not dictated by a higher power. This is the mentality that allows people to justify turning to piracy when the legal route is too difficult. Rather than making the legal route easier (as the music industry seems to have figured out in only a decade or so), the MPAA is committed to creating a world where they are an altruistic god showering the people with "high-value content," asking only for our money and obedience in return. The scariest part is the thought that some of the people in control might actually believe that what they are doing is for the public good.
This hit the nail right on the head. Users feel they have the right to do what they want with what they consider "their property," whether it's that DVD they shelled out 30 bucks for, or the .avi of a free, independant movie they legally torrented from an animation studio. For some reason, organizations representing the industry (not the artists them selves) feel that in the digital age, our concept of property has to change in order for art to continue to be produced. Any rational person would beg to differ.
The worst part is that this doesn't even "close the analog hole" in any way. Sure, it stops one portion of it - recording/viewing media through component cable - but that's putting a band-aid on a chest wound. The real analog hole is the fact that, in the end, the screen is being displayed visually - it's just photons. We happen to have a method of captuing photons spread across a period of time, the video camera. Sure, it'll look crappy at first, but people will get better at normalizing the colours or finding different capture methods, and, as has been seen before [slashdot.org], users will adapt to the worse quality format because it's the one that's not fleecing them.
Personally, I'm keeping my older equipment until stores eventually realize that trying to redefine the legel definition of property outisde of the court system turns more customers away than pirates it keeps at bay - which, last time I checked, was virtually nil.
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Wait - You're saying the Demopublicans and the Republocrats provide the same outcome? Shit. Perhaps we give them a paper cut with the Constitution.
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Actually, the RIAA and MPAA did pretty well under Republicans as well.
Truth is, corporations own most of the politicians. Since they never know which side is in power, they buy both sides. Problem solved --- for them.
Meanwhile, our society begins to decay more and more.
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Get your snacks from the shop down the road; It'll be cheaper, and you have 20 minutes to kill. You could just get Cola, or a couple of beers. Who will tell?
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Simpler solution:
Don't go to theaters that do that. I've only gone to an independent chain after there was 33 (so much for your 10) minutes of ads before the feature, not counting previews. The only ads ad this chain are for events that the chain has.
They also serve food and toss out people that talk.
Living on your knees (Score:2)
The MPAA and their ilk would love the consumer population to live on their knees an
Of course it is a pro-consumer! (Score:2)
calling the petition a 'pro-consumer' (!)
Of course it pro-consumer. It will ensure that only role you can play is being obedient couch potato.
Also that might help finally solve the problem with the pesky indie studios by making it even more expensive to air anything anywhere.
Close the digital hole first. (Score:5, Funny)
No, OPEN some holes... (Score:2, Insightful)
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No, what they want is a form of PK encryption on the devices. Even though there is an analog version of the content, you will be unable to convert this to a form that will play back on anybody's device, even your own, because you don't have the encryption key, only the decryption key. Devices that playback unencrypted content will be illegal because "pirates use them".
"home movies" may be playable, but only by keeping the recording device connected to the internet. It will negotiate a one-time key with the
What about this one? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why I have absolutely no problem with downloading anything and everything I want.
They claim their losing money because I download content for free... Something interesting here.
1. I wasn't going to buy the movie anyway.
2. You can't lose money you didn't have.
3. The movie sucked anyway.
4. It's not my fault you think $50 million dollar special effects makes a good movie.
5. You want me to pay you to tell me how to use my property?
6. You didn't know as long as I can see it I can copy it?
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4.
I would agree with this point. Transformers (1 & 2) weren't all that great, but I would pay $10 just to see Megan Fox. Any movie with her ( and a select few other actors ) is worth $10 to watch, regardless of plot or effects.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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We first have to ask which analog hole they want to close.
Well depends on the analog hole, but I think given their anal affection with politics the probably want to plug the rear end.
Oh noez! (Score:3, Insightful)
Millions of SDTVs still in use (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only that, but blocking all analog outputs would break 80 million standard-definition televisions [engadgethd.com]. True, SDTV is the past and HDTV is the future, but the present has always been a mix of the past and the future. So I don't see how "The vast majority of consumers would not have to purchase new devices to receive the new, high-value content" when it isn't yet true that "[t]he vast majority of consumers" already own an HDTV.
More DRM... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Go to options and change the comment post mode.
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(It shows up when you click 'Reply to This')
To protect pre-release HD movies ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Where in reality, even 50 year old B/W cowboy films are region coded and copy protected when they are re-released on DVD.
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Those are the same people that promised that the DVD region coding and CSS system was only to protect new films from being watched in countries where they hadn't been released yet.
Where in reality, even 50 year old B/W cowboy films are region coded and copy protected when they are re-released on DVD.
You did trust them, didnÂt you. I didnt believe their bull**** from day zero. I would have been positively surprised though if they hadnÂt been lying. The media industry is like that give them a knife and they will stab you if they see they can get money out of you. Ah and yes before that they will buy a law which makes backstabbing in certain cases legal.
Don't worry... they cannot stop "us" now (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like to... (Score:2)
tear them a new a-hole
what the fuck? (Score:2)
Isn't it their job to know that this wouldn't help anything?
They already have the option of offering Americans "in-home access to high-value, high definition video content"
This is evident because: Americans already HAVE "in-home access to high-value, high definition video content"
It sounds so dirty (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know about you, but the title, "Close the Analog Hole" sounds like something you would hear on a pr0n site.
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That sound like the opposite of what you would hear on a porn site.
Obligatory Admiral Akbar (Score:2)
Bionic ear and eye upgrades needed (Score:3, Funny)
I wanted to help the RIAA/MPAA close the analogue hole, but the closest I could come up with is to use my thumbs to plug my ears, and the rest of my fingers to cover my eyes. Maybe that's what they think of modern content they produce which is accounting for falling sales, so crap you should not watch or listen to it. Your fingers are "digital" encryption!
to turn off the analog hole (Score:3, Insightful)
you have to get rid of that pesky thing called THE HUMAN EAR
otherwise, if people are still listening WITH THEIR FUCKING EARS, the signal has to go analog at some point, and there you can intercept a signal
fucking morons
renders my tv useless (Score:2)
My HDTV has no digital inputs. Yes. It is old. It only has analog component video. It *is* 1080i, though, and I don't feel like I should have to replace it because the MPAA is worried I will try to copy their crappy content through analog video cables. It also renders my friend's fancy video projector obsolete for the same reason. This move is totally anti-consumer.
There is a seriously large digital hole. Its called making a 1 for 1 copy of a DVD. Yes, I know that does not affect broadcast programs,
How the conversation should have gone (Score:2)
FCC Guy 1, 2, 3: Hahahahahahaha
FCC Guy 1: Next time you come in here to waste our time we are going to bill you $2000 per hour
How it probably went
MPAA Guy 1: We want to rape consumers
FCC Guy 1, 2, 3:>/b> Hahahahahaha
FCC Guy 1: Hand over the sacks of money and the legislation.
Re: (Score:2)
The final straw (Score:4, Insightful)
If they do anything that stops me using my mythbox to record tv I will totally cancel cable.
I'm too busy and my time is too valuable to me to only watch live broadcast at their start times, mostly because of all the commercial breaks, but also usually I'm just too busy to be around a a set time.
A normal 90 minute movie on cable takes like 3 hours even though they have cut the movie down 'for content' which is a PC way of saying 'removed good content to make more space for advertising breaks'.
Cable is already too expensive and has so terrible programming quality that I need mythbox to filter out all the commercials and shitty shows so I get anything worth watching at all. If they break my ability to use mythbox I'm seriously gone from TV. Netflix, Hulu etc here I come.
Good job there MPAA on killing the cash cow.
Have you noticed... (Score:2)
...that when the EFF does it, it's a heroic effort to educate the ignorant government regulators, but when the **AA do it, it's badgering?
Was the submitter afraid we wouldn't know whether this was good or bad without the slanted language? Just curious...
Definition of "pro-consumer" (Score:2)
If you don't want to play by my rules, I'm leaving, and taking my marbles with me!
That's it in a nutshell. They own the marbles (aka content). They figure that it's friendlier on the consumer to be able to watch under restricted guidelines than not at all.
In reality, the consumer doesn't care much about "high-value HD content," pre-releases, etc. Most TV viewing is on stupid series, and more often than not, reality shows. Far more people will plunk down and watch the latest rampant overpopulating family wee
Pro chinese electronics manufacturers (Score:2)
In the end, the ones that would win here are the electronics manufacturers that then would sell us ways to bypass the protection, just like all that region locking DVDs did was to make sure that Europeans would buy off brand players that can play anything anyway.
When will we reach the pain threshhold? (Score:4, Insightful)
Any legitimate claims they have about preventing piracy is pretty much becoming meaningless.
When will we reach the point where the rights of the consumer, out weighs the rights of the manufacture to treat all their customers like criminals?
MPIAA/RIAA is pretty much digging their own grave. Any chance copyright holders have in preserving their rights to market their work without fear of poaching, is quickly diminishing through draconian measures the MPIAA and RIAA are taking.
Once you lose the will of the general populace to protect your interests, you pretty much lost the battle...
I'm all for enforcing the current laws by going after blatant copyright violators who sell pirated CDs or DVDs on the streets. I'm even for them going after the people who distribute copyrighted material through p2p networks without the consent of the copyright holder. However when they start making it difficult for you to actually use what you paid for, then we have no choice but to seek out the street vendor or the p2p network. I'm not buying more equipment just so they can impose more restrictions on me.
I think we need to close ... (Score:2)
You can't close the analog hole, stupid **AA (Score:4, Insightful)
That's like trying to tell the stars in the universe to e ligmitht in the form of encrypted ones and zeroes instead of photons - it just isn't fucking happening because the majority of the universe, physics and all, works on analog, not digital.
If I can see this content, I can record it, period. There's not one fucking thing you can do to stop it.
OK, so MPAA gets a big plug up its analog hole. (Score:4, Interesting)
EVERYTHING is encrypted until the electrons hit the phosphor or the current hits the transistors in the LCD.
Six months (hell, six weeks!) after China starts churning out the compliant TV sets/monitors, the grey market will have TVs/monitors with some manner of video/audio out ports, either blatantly obvious or as solder pads on the PC inside the display.
The quality of the display will be excellent, as will the quality of the unencrypted A/V output.
China does not care a fat rat's ass about what the MPAA wants. It is, and will always be about the money. Running a third shift once or twice a week and sourcing cabinets without the LG/Samsung/Sony/fill in the blank logo on them will be something very familiar to most Chinese electronic manufacturing firms.
Show of hands, how many here already have a "grey market" DVD player that's both region free, plays NTSC/PAL DVDs, and will also play .avi, DivX, Xvid, mks, etc?
Yeah, I thought so.
And if nothing else, someone will figure out how to fool that encrypted signal into thinking it's displaying on a TV/monitor, while it's actually just sending that signal to an MPEG encoder and thence to a hard drive.
One more reason to build a Linux box, I guess.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Report to your local controller for reprogramming (Score:3, Funny)
I'm just going to read books for now on. They're much cheaper and the stories aren't ruined by screenplay writers.
Dateline 2020, United Corproate States of America(tm)
It has come to the attention of your(tm) media(tm) elite(tm) that books do not offer a sufficient rate of return per consumer-hour to justify permitting their continued use. As is well known, consumer time is a precious commodity underpinning much of our(tm) service(tm) industry(tm), the squandering of which does untold(tm) economic(tm) dama