Pro-Hollywood bill aims to restrict digital tuners

News.com ^ | 12/20/2005 | Declan McCullagh

[Panerai]

A new proposal in Congress could please Hollywood studios, which are increasingly worried about Internet piracy, by embedding anticopying technology into the next generation of digital video products.

If the legislation were enacted, one year later it would outlaw the manufacture or sale of electronic devices that convert analog video signals into digital ones--unless those encoders honor an anticopying plan designed to curb redistribution. Affected devices would include PC-based tuners and digital video recorders.

"This legislation is designed to secure analog content from theft that has been made easier as a result of the transition to digital technologies," House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Wisconsin Republican, said late Friday. Criminals "obtain copyrighted content and then redistribute for profit at the copyright owner's expense," he added.

Sensenbrenner's bill, also backed by Democratic Rep. John Conyers, is designed to plug what technologists have come to call the "analog hole." That's the practice of converting copy-protected digital material to analog format, stripping away copy protection, and shifting the material back to digital format with only a slight loss in quality.

The Motion Picture Association of America applauded the legislation, called the Digital Transition Content Security Act. MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement that it was a "very important piece of legislation that will promote more consumer choice as it protects copyright owners in the digital age."

The legislation was introduced just as Congress is departing for the holidays, so it likely won't be considered for the next few months. But it could draw strong opposition from consumer electronics makers and advocacy groups such as Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which already had expressed alarm over an earlier version.

[AbeKrieger]

Too late.

And even if it wasn't, it would be.

If we can listen, we can record, and if we can't record in perfect quality, we won;t be buying your recorders. Deal with it.

[goldstategop]

Its really designed to protect Hollywood and I predict a rush on TV tuner cards before this becomes law. Plus, the DRM features built into Windows Vista will make people balk at the inevitable hardware upgrade.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[pointsal]

How much was donated to Conyers?

[Tzimisce]

Left eats left - on one hand the left hates it when Hollywood 'steals' something the left thinks should be free. On the other hand, Hollywood money keeps all the Communists in Congress afloat.

Oh what to do? Oh what to do?

[MediaMole]

...and to Sensenbrenner? Anti ANWAR drilling, pro-RIAA/MPAA, anti-constituent hack.

[FormerLib]

If Hollywood wants it, I'm against it.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Boy, talk about fighting the last war...

[Mad_as_heck]

Analog Hole? That is sort of like the "Gun show loophole" I guess."

This is an actual threat to our civil liberties unlike the Patriot Act, taping Bin Laden cell phone, or (according to the ACLU) Christmas.

[atomicpossum]

They're propping up a buggy-whip industry. If they don't adapt to the new world ahead of them, the 'entertainment' industry will get steamrollered. Instead, they keep trying to stifle accessibility by folks who have had that door opened to them by computers. They'll never win by trying to artificially close up access.

[JoJo Gunn]

Related thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1543441/posts

[N. Theknow]

Wow!

Does this mean Hollywood is actually going to start producing something worth recording?

(Boy, those crickets are loud.)

[JoJo Gunn]

MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement that it was a "very important piece of legislation that will promote more consumer choice as it protects copyright owners in the digital age."

Orwellian sewage....

[Constantine XIII]

Politicians from California know all about plugging holes. :P

[upchuck]

From the related thread:

Calling the ability to convert analog video content to a digital format a "significant technical weakness in content protection," H.R. 4569 would require all consumer electronics video devices manufactured more than 12 months after the DTCSA is passed to be able to detect and obey a "rights signaling system" that would be used to limit how content is viewed and used.

And 11 months, 15 days after the DTCSA is passed, hackers will release software to disable the system.

This is a pissing contest that the RIAA and the Hollygoons will never win.

Please note that I AM NOT promoting the downloading or copying of copyrighted material.

[texas_mrs]

Why would I wish to copy that which I don't buy any of in the first place?