Betamax all over again

[Psionicist]

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/01/hollywood_after_the_.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004106.php

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.

This is like the Broadcast Flag on steroids. The Broadcast Flag only covered TV receivers. This covers everything with an analog video input. If this had been around in 1976, the VCR would have been illegal. Today, it would ban Mythtv, every tuner-card in the market, and boxes like ElGato's eyeTV the Slingbox and the Orb and the vPod. This is a proposal to turn huge classes of technology into something that exists only at the sufferance of the studios.

And what do they suffer? Not much. Here are a couple of the stupid ideas we can expect to see protected through rules like this, all drawn from real discussions with DRM lobbyists from the MPAA:

1. You can "accept a contract" by changing the channel. If you change the channel from 3 to 4, and the show on channel 4 has a signal that says it can't be recorded, then by watching channel 4, you're "making an agreement" to waive your time-shifting right in exchange for the show. This is like a shopkeeper hiding a "I reserve the right to punch you in the nose" sign somewhere in his shop and then randomly clobbering his customers, answering any complaints by saying that you agreed to it when you came through the door.

2. Everything with value has a price-tag. Today you can rewind TV, fast-forward it, skip the ads, move it to another device in your house, or stream it to your web-browser on the road. Tomorrow all of these features will only exist if they are permitted, on a case by case basis. The studios will "enable the business-model" of charging you money for the stuff that you get for free today. Here's a quote: "Doing this stuff has value, and if it has value, we should be able to charge money for it." They do indeed have value: you currently enjoy that value. Under this proposal, the value will be stolen from you and sold back to you piecemeal.

 

[Dagger75]

Lets hope the book people don't get any idead. I can start when ever I want, end what ever I want, skip ahead go back when ever also.

Wonder what the Television/Movie industry will think when nobody goes to see the garbage they produce. Wait till we start charging them for us to sit watch.

 

[Zappo]

Great. I guess I'll have to buy tuner cards from another country, or learn to mod them. But this is really getting sick.

 

[Agamon]

This is rediculous. The more restrictions they try to make, the more people will turn to grey market technology. They really should just try to work with the flow, rather than against it. Someday, maybe. Or maybe not.

 

[Psionicist]

Here's an article from Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/analog-hole.ars

These laws aren't about piracy, and anyone who thinks they are needs to stop, look, and listen. Once the MPAA and pals have their way, you're going to pay through the nose for even the most basic of Fair Use rights. You're going to pay for the right to rewind and "re-experience" content. The Copy Prohibited Content class, complete with its asinine insta-delete feature is nothing but a back door into attacking what the content industry hates most: your ability to timeshift content. Yes, Jack Valenti said the VCR would destroy Hollywood, and while these moonbats no longer believe that, they do know that the rhetoric works.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Good thing I still use a VCR.

 

[Psionicist]

Good thing I still use a VCR.

Well, your VCR will be illegal because it doesn't have DRM.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, your VCR will be illegal because it doesn't have DRM.

They can take my VCR away when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Sorry, I don't see how they will suddenly legislate in any way that would make VCR recording of TV shows illegal, and even if they did, it would not be enforceable legislation.

And if they found a way to make VCRs useless through some means as things switch to digital TV, and they found a way to regulate new technology, I just wouldn't bother with any of it. Shut the TV off and read a book. Considering how much my TV viewing has declined in the past 5 years (from about 15-20 shows regularly watched now down to 2), it would not be that much of a loss.

 

[mojo1701]

And if they found a way to make VCRs useless through some means as things switch to digital TV, and they found a way to regulate new technology, I just wouldn't bother with any of it. Shut the TV off and read a book. Considering how much my TV viewing has declined in the past 5 years (from about 15-20 shows regularly watched now down to 2), it would not be that much of a loss.

And the few that barely make your monthly cable bill worthwhile can be bought on DVD, and you can watch it whenever you want.

 

[Jdvn1]

Good thing I still use my Beta player.

I don't think this legislation would fly because they people couldn't make digital copies of their own home videos.