Will your TV become a spy? (The FCC is accepting comments on the proposal until Jan. 17)

businessweek.com ^ | JANUARY 3, 2003 | Jane Black

[FreeSpeechZone]

Yet studio execs remain on the warpath. As movies are increasingly broadcast and sold in digital format, Tinseltown execs are panicked that consumers will make infinite numbers of perfect digital copies and share them over the Internet.

That's why the entertainment industry's honchos will once again journey to Capitol Hill when Congress convenes a new session later this month to ask lawmakers and the Federal Communications Commission for more protection. However, if Hollywood has its way, consumer privacy -- not piracy -- will pay a heavy price.

[Karsus]

Glad to see the GWB admin keeping goverment out of our lives.

[Orbiter]

...and hacked before it hits the showroom floor.

[Once-Ler]

What the heck does this have to do with Dubya?

[Karsus]

Who gave Powel the FCC job?

[Karsus]

True. But then the people that hacked it will be thrown into federal prison for breaking the DMCA.

[Once-Ler]

After being on-line for 6 years and a big fan of newsgroups and IRC I'm convinced that no matter what copy protection is used, hackers will crack it within weeks. Most hackers couldn't care less about consequences and will consider it a challenge.

Binary newsgroups post dvd movies, books converted to doc and pdf, programs, and MP3s. Same deal for IRC, ICQ, and several popular file swapping programs like Kazaa. The genie is out of the bottle and I don't think intellectual property rights will ever be the same again.

[Orbiter]

With all the satellite dish, software, and music hackers likewise confined? Dream on...

[Once-Ler]

I read it again and I see nothing here that says the FCC has agreed or is likely to agree with Hollywood. So your comments "Glad to see the GWB admin keeping goverment out of our lives" makes no sense to me...am I missing something?

[Karsus]

Why? All it would take is a system for the goverment to track everyone's internet browsing habits. You know, like the system the pentagon is working on...

[Karsus]

The fact that it is even under consideration it one of the things that lead me to say that. Something like this should not even be one the table in a free society.

[Karsus]

one should be on.

[The Grammarian]

Things like this make me glad that I don't watch TV very much.

[Once-Ler]

So your saying the companies who are having their product stolen from them should not be allowed to offer solutions to the government. Who else has no right to free speech and representation in your view?

[Karsus]

It is already against the law. Enfore the current copyright laws before you get the goverment to take away my Fair Use rights.

[Karsus]

Also, don't forget, HW does not want this to stop copies that are currently illegal. They want to stop current Fair Use copies so they can get paid for each and every copy even if it is currently a protected by fair use.

Rules (thought congress was the only one to pass laws) like this also cause copyright to be of infinite duration. When the copyright expires it would still be illegal to break to protection on the now public domain works.

[ContentiousObjector]

Unless the RIAA and MPAA has figured out how to eliminate the need for a DAC, they will never be able to prevent this,

[Once-Ler]

Well I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
They recently released the 2nd season on DVD.
6 dvds about 18 hours of shows for $40...downloading the episodes would take a week of dedicated cable modem downloading even if they were posted to the usenet. Combine that with nice packaging and the fact that many of the mpeg video that is posted is greatly degraded in quality and the DVD set is a great value for me.

I wish the entertainment industry would consider doing this kind of stuff more often...if the music industry would lower the cost of the cds they release it would be more economical for most the music pirates to just buy the cd instead of hunting for the songs in chatrooms or FTPs.

At a certain point copy protection becomes a hinderence for the consumer.
I bought my daughter "the Sims" and a few related expantion packs. The copy protection slowed down the install, It's very difficult to make back up copies and she has to use both cdrom slots on her computer to play it. I'm not willing to buy anymore products from Maxis the manufacturer of "the Sims" because of this.

[Once-Ler]

Karsus you are complaining about a proposal that is not law, and most likely never will be. Complain about actual law and policy before you bad mouth the government for listening to the concerns of its citizens.