Hollywood After The Anal. Hole Again

Boing Boing ^ | Nov 01, 2005

[steve-b]

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....

[steve-b]

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit."
--Robert A. Heinlein

[BipolarBob]

They will turn people into pirates before the greedy b*****s stop. At some point people will say enough.

[Windcatcher]

BTTT

[steve-b]

They will turn people into pirates before the greedy b*****s stop. At some point people will say enough.

I think it's already started, actually.

[ShadowAce]

[mongrel]

Flag on the field: Intentional double-entendre abbreviation in the headline.

[theFIRMbss]

>Hollywood has fielded a shockingly ambitious piece of "Analog Hole" legislation

What's the bill's number?
What Senator sponsors it?
What groups support it?

[chronic_loser]

You really should change that title. Made me wonder what a tech ping had to do with gay sex.

[dirtboy]

Made me wonder what a tech ping had to do with gay sex.

Because Hollywood wants to do to electronics users what gays do, well, you get the picture...

[steve-b]

Don't blame me; it's FR policy to use the original headline (to minimize the posting of duplicates). Take it up with the folks at Boing Boing.

[Still Thinking]

They will turn people into pirates before the greedy b*****s stop. At some point people will say enough.

Yes, I love how they insist in treating everyone like criminals then complain that there are so many criminals. It's like MADD getting the BAL lowered from 0.10 to 0.08 then using the increase in drunk driving arrests in their promo materials to show how bad the drunk driving problem was. Or like the feds reducing body weight standards then decrying the "increase" in obesity.

[steve-b]

Yes, I love how they insist in treating everyone like criminals then complain that there are so many criminals. It's like MADD getting the BAL lowered from 0.10 to 0.08 then using the increase in drunk driving arrests in their promo materials to show how bad the drunk driving problem was. Or like the feds reducing body weight standards then decrying the "increase" in obesity.

Yep.

[steve-b]

Currently, it is a policy paper the copyright-abuse lobby is shopping around the Hill. The fact that it leaked so soon may doom it, if enough people tell their reps that it is not acceptable.

[steve-b]

Because Hollywood wants to do to electronics users what gays do, well, you get the picture...

LOL

Obviously, Boing Boing was going for an adolescent double entendre. As for me, I don't set FR policy; I just post here.