[luau] [NEWS] Hollywood want to plug the "Analog Hole"

[Rodney Kanno]

Very disturbing article....

http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000113.html

(excerpt from article)

 The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the "Content
Protection Status Report" with the Senate Judiciary Committee last
month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its
own ends. The report calls for regulation of analog-to-digital
converters (ADCs), generic computing components found in scientific,
medical and entertainment devices. Under its proposal, every ADC will be
controlled by a "cop-chip" that will shut it down if it is asked to
assist in converting copyrighted material -- your cellphone would refuse
to transmit your voice if you wandered too close to the copyrighted
music coming from your stereo. 

This is meant to work like so: You point your camcorder at a movie
screen. The magical, theoretical watermark embedded in the film is
picked up by the cop-chip, which disables the camcorder's ADC. Your
camcorder records nothing but dead air. The mic, sensing a watermark in
the film's soundtrack, also shuts itself down.

 Virtually everything in our world is copyrighted or trademarked by
someone, from the facades of famous sky-scrapers to the background music
at your local mall. If ADCs are constrained from performing
analog-to-digital conversion of all watermarked copyrighted works, you
might end up with a cellphone that switches itself off when you get
within range of the copyrighted music on your stereo; a camcorder that
refuses to store your child's first steps because he is taking them
within eyeshot of a television playing a copyrighted cartoon; a camera
that won't snap your holiday moments if they take place against the
copyrighted backdrop of a chain store such as Starbucks, which forbids
on-premises photography because its fixtures are proprietary works. 

-- 
It's been a long 10 years, but at least I have 3 degrees to show for it!

Rodney Kanno
Webpage: http://home.hawaii.rr.com/kanno65
Email: pepe65 at hawaii.rr.com