p2pnet - rss feed: Broadcast Flag on steroids
p2p news / p2pnet: Halloween is traditionally the time when the undead walk; preposterous monstrosities that no-one could imagine living stumble and moan through the land.
So, “guess what the entertainment industry decided to dust off for an extra spooky session with the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday?” – asks the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Danny O’Brien
“Why, yes, they are bringing the broadcast flag. And, certainly, there is talk of their henchmen at the RIAA clumsily re-animating their insane digital radio requirements.
“But that’s not spooky enough for the MPAA. For their party trick this year, they want to take one of the most basic and ubiquitous components in multimedia, and encase it within a pile of legally-enforced, complex, and patented proprietary technology - forever.”
Or as he puts it on Boing Boing, “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.” >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Halloween on the Hill
By Danny O’Brien - Deep Links
Ladies and gentlemen, the MPAA have chosen Halloween week to resurrect their most misconceived monster ever: the Thing from the Analog Hole.
Feel free to flick through this new Halloween document: it’s a legislative draft proposed by the MPAA for a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, on the topic “Content Protection in the Digital Age: The Broadcast Flag, High-Definition Radio, and the Analog Hole,” on November 3rd.
On Thursday, they’ll be no doubt declaring this law’s passing to be vital to the entertainment industry’s survival, just as Jack Valenti told the same committee that the home video-recorder would kill the film industry.
Here’s what the proposed law says, in a nutshell:
Every consumer analog video input device manufactured in the United States will be, within a year, forced to obey not one, but two new copy restriction technologies: a watermarking system called VEIL, and a rights system called CGMS-A (we’ve covered CGMS-A before; we’ll talk a bit more about VEIL soon).
And what might these MPAA-specified, government-mandated technologies do?
They prescribe how many times (if at all) the analog video signal might be copied - and enforce it. This is the future world that was accidentally triggered for TiVo users a few months ago, when viewers found themselves lectured by their own PVR that their recorded programs would be deleted after a few days.
But it won’t just be your TiVo: anything that brings analog video into the digital world will be shackled. Forget about buying a VCR with an un-DRMed digital output. Forget about getting a TV card for your computer that will willingly spit out an open, clear format.
Forget, realistically, that your computer will ever be under your control again. To allow any high-res digitization to take place at all, a new graveyard of digital content will have to built within your PC.
Freshly minted digital video from authorised video analog-to-digital converters will be marshalled here and here only, where they will be forced to comply with the battery of restrictions dictated by Hollywood.
In this Nightmare Before Turing, video content will be crippled, far more than it ever was in its old analog home. They will only be able to be recorded using “Authorized Recording Methods”, or “Bound Recording Methods”, and the entire subsystem will have to obey “robustness” requirements that will make circumvention for fair use - and open source development in general - near impossible.
The unprotected analog outputs of computers will be, in perpetuity, restricted to either DRM-laden standards, or to a “constrained image”, “no more than 350,000 pixels”. Analog video which has been branded as “do not copy”, will last for only ninety minutes only in the digital world - and will be erased, literally frame by frame, megabyte by megabyte, from your PC, without your control. You’ll watch a two hour film, and as you watch the final half hour, the first few scenes will be being dissolved away by statute.
Moore’s Law won’t dictate how technology might improve and innovate any longer: in this Halloween future, the new limit for technological innovation is No More’s Law, where your specs are spelled out and frozen by Congress in a law drafted by standards that were laughable in the last century.
And this is just a plain description of how this might affect our technology.
Quite beside that, the law is littered with throwaway requirements that would smack our economy and social norms in the face as well.
The MPAA, for instance, graciously permits a few, precious, normal analog-to-digital convertors to exist. But only on “professional devices”.
What’s a professional device? Well, just as in the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), it’s a device that is intended for use by recording professionals. (AHRA you will recall, was the law that mandated copy protection on all but “professional” DAT recorders, thereby killing the technology almost stone dead in the commercial marketplace).
Unlike that Act, in the MPAA’s new bill, “if a device is … commonly purchased by persons other than [commercial copiers], then such device shall not be considered a ‘professional device’”.
In other words, you can sell standard unrestricted digitizers, until you become too popular. Then magically, you’re liable. For not more than $500,000 or five years imprisonment for a first offence. Good luck explaining that market condition to your backers.
Oh, and don’t think you can just obey the law as it stands now: if the VEIL technologies prescribed by the law become “materially ineffective”, then the government can upgrade those standards, and demand compliance on the new spec.
The trustworthy, well-funded technological powerhouse they’ve chosen to give this new responsibility of monitoring, designing, and managing the upgrading of every video convertor in the United States? That uncontroversial institution, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
It’s genuinely shocking to us that the entertainment industry would bring even one of their standard technological pipe-dreams to the table now, even as they are still reeling from the reception the broadcast flag has so far received in the courts and in congressional committees.
But to bring this: an invasive, future-crippling Frankenstein monster of a DMCA anti-circumvention bill, bolted together with an overbroad broadcast-flag restriction, to stand guard at every exit from the analog video world into digital future, is breathtaking.
It’s bad enough that Hollywood’s customers have had to drag them and their content kicking and screaming from dying business models into a new era. Now they seem intent on putting up government roadblocks to stop any of us from leaving their Haunted Mansion of dying analog video media, into world of a living, developing, digital future. Spooky indeed.
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November 1st, 2005 at 4:24 pm
The scary thing is that eventually they will probably succeed. Despite crying poverty due to piracy, the MPAA and RIAA have an endless stream of money to throw at a greedy and corrupt congress. It will probably wind up in the courts. Anyone who lives in the US knows what a crapshoot that is, all you need to do is look at the Supreme court’s Kelo decision( http://forum.belmont.edu/cornwall/archives/002880.html ) to see how courts can trample individual rights
November 1st, 2005 at 4:51 pm
In the P.S.A. , we are supposed to have the right to a free press. This legislation, if passed, will substantially infringe apon that right. If this law is passed, and the court system upholds it, then there is only one alternative left, and that alternative has to deal with the title of this post.
November 1st, 2005 at 5:34 pm
Just how long do you think that right is going to last. 5 to 10 years at the most?
November 1st, 2005 at 7:06 pm
I give it less then that if we don’t start seriously considering why we have this right and use it to protect ourselves. Right Wing militias started appearing when Clinton was rampantly abusing people. Of course when these groups started springing up, the government became a lot less aggressive. Many in these groups are the same ones who voted for Bushie. Now that king George is in office they have gone underground. I have news for these patriots, there is more danger of the loss of freedoms now more than ever. The government has the excuse of the World Trade Center terrorist attack to steal our liberties as well as large campaign coffers filled by the cartels.
I wonder what would happen of the people of this country elected a Libertarian or Constitution Party member as President instead of a Democrat-Republican. The only ways I can see that we can assert our liberties is either flushing the toilet (government offices) enough times to get rid of the shit or civil war. I would much rather do it by getting rid of all the criminals in political office.
November 1st, 2005 at 7:09 pm
We North American’s are a fat, lazy, and complacent lot. By the time we figure out we need to all be standing up for what is right, and not just a few of us, it will be far too late as there won’t be any rights left to stand up for.
What is really needed is for the technology industry to stand up and have their say in this once and for all. The entertainment industry exists at the sole sufferance of the tech industry, not the other way around as the MPAA & RIAA seem to think. Exactly what is the total contribution to gross national income of the tech industry versus the entertainment industry anyways? We all know the answer to that. And guess who makes all the cameras and equipment the entertainment industry requires to make their product? Or all the gear required to build and operate theaters, and the equipment required so that regular folks buy and view the entertainment industries products at home? Who allows the entertainment industry to even make money in the first place?
If everyone thinks this law is going to have a huge impact on the people, just think of the technological sector. It’s going to be even bigger of an impact on them because it’s going to severely hamper what they can and cannot do by shackling their hands behind their backs for all time. What happens when other, more sane countries, outlaw such technological tampering because it tramples users rights? Tech companies are going to have to put in the resources to make both hampered and non-hampered models of absolutely everything they make, or simply not bother selling their wares in those countries anymore. In the short term it’s probably not much of a bother for them to do so since the infrastructure is more than likely already in place to do so, but think of the long term costs and loss of sales! People won’t want equipment that limits them in anyway. They’ve proven that already. What they want, and always will want, is equipment that not just allows them to do whatever they want with what they’ve paid good money for (and that includes the distribution media too), but they want it to be simple and easy to use. Unfortunately that is the problem with everyone these days (except for a rare few); they’re much too short sighted to see all of the long term problems that new laws like these are certainly going to create. In which case I, and others like myself, should be asking, why should I even bother to care at all anymore…?
November 1st, 2005 at 7:26 pm
The broadcast flag failed once before.
Why ?
Something the industry didn’t count on.
Our congressional leaders work on the theory that
“What the public doesn’t know, won’t keep us from being reelected”.
Because of the efforts of sites like this, The EFF, and other
similar organizations, word spread. People were outraged, wrote letters, threatened to send their votes elsewhere, and
our “leaders” backed off.
The industry COUNTS on word never getting out. That USED to be easy, since they control, directly or financially, all mainstream media.
This no longer true.
We’ve proved it.
So,
DON”T GIVE UP !
Spread the word.
Write your congressmen.
Let them know, in no uncertain terms, that if they are FOR
this, you feel they are no longer suitable for public office.
Dreddsnik.
November 1st, 2005 at 9:16 pm
“Right Wing militias started appearing when Clinton was rampantly abusing people.”
Are you kidding? Right wing militias predate slick willy by a long time. Cripes, I’d say the klan is (and was) a right wing militia of sorts. I’m not taking issue with the basic message of your post, but the time line part is way off.
November 1st, 2005 at 9:55 pm
You are right, militias have been a part of the country since its inception. However Slick Willy’s abuse of power caused a heavy resurgence of the militia. Bushie’s policies should be doing the same.
November 2nd, 2005 at 1:24 am
This sounds as though it may be unconstitutional, though I admit I haven’t read it in detail. However it seems that to force this technology on all people may inhibit the ability of the individual to disseminate free speech in an unfettered manner. What if I do a news story, and I WANT the footage to be as easily copied and viewed as possible ?
November 2nd, 2005 at 9:13 am
I think our only hope is that the sheer number of companies that will be impacted by this and start screaming about it is enough to make hollywood back off.
Tho i can see the tech industry outside the US already rubbing their hands in glee. After all, as long as they provide assurances that their products won’t be made available in the us they don’t have to comply with this legislation at all.
It wouldn’t be their fault then if the US public started illegally importing the non locked down tech into the US, now would it?
November 3rd, 2005 at 4:57 am
How would this technology apply to dvd copy ? I suppose the gist of this arguement centers around digital tv signals.
They say that the old tried and true analog tv set that are imported from china and sold at walmart will be the thing of the past.
So how can a watermark be used to keep people from cooking hollywood movies on their computers ?
In theory the only way the cartels would be able to do this if every motherboard that was ever meant for sale in the united states had a chip installed on the motherboard that would detect a water mark or checksum on the dvd and prevent the dvd from being copied.I
t might be a derivative of the technology involved in fingerprint indentication.
I see this in action where i work at a military base where fingerprint indentication is used to check in and out vehicle keys in a computer driven key storage system.
This might sound like a very elaborate and expensive proposition.
I want to ask the rest of you Would this be technically feasible?
As it stands today a css encoded dvd will prevent the operating system and the dvd burner from reading the dvd vob files.
Actually a working drm model of such a thing would be cheaper built on a motherboard rather than installing the drm on a computer chip.
Recently i heard that microsoft came out with a new operating system that was immediatly slammed because microsoft had made claims that illegal cd and dvd ripping would be more difficult.
Microsoft denies all of these allegations.
November 3rd, 2005 at 4:58 am
How would this technology apply to dvd copy ?
I suppose the gist of this arguement centers around digital tv signals.
They say that the old tried and true analog tv set that are imported from china and sold at walmart will be the thing of the past.
So how can a watermark be used to keep people from cooking hollywood movies on their computers ?
In theory the only way the cartels would be able to do this if every motherboard that was ever meant for sale in the united states had a chip installed on the motherboard that would detect a water mark or checksum on the dvd and prevent the dvd from being copied.I
t might be a derivative of the technology involved in fingerprint indentication.
I see this in action where i work at a military base where fingerprint indentication is used to check in and out vehicle keys in a computer driven key storage system.
This might sound like a very elaborate and expensive proposition.
I want to ask the rest of you Would this be technically feasible?
As it stands today a css encoded dvd will prevent the operating system and the dvd burner from reading the dvd vob files.
Actually a working drm model of such a thing would be cheaper built on a motherboard rather than installing the drm on a computer chip.
Recently i heard that microsoft came out with a new operating system that was immediatly slammed because microsoft had made claims that illegal cd and dvd ripping would be more difficult.
Microsoft denies all of these allegations.
November 3rd, 2005 at 5:00 am
How would this technology apply to dvd copy ?
I suppose the gist of this arguement centers around digital tv signals.
They say that the old tried and true analog tv set that are imported from china and sold at walmart will be the thing of the past.
So how can a watermark be used to keep people from cooking hollywood movies on their computers ?
Something that would even make slysoft and dvdfab worthless?
In theory the only way the cartels would be able to do this if every motherboard that was ever meant for sale in the united states had a chip installed on the motherboard that would detect a water mark or checksum on the dvd and prevent the dvd from being copied.
It might be a derivative of the technology involved in fingerprint indentication.
I see this in action where i work at a military base where fingerprint indentication is used to check in and out vehicle keys in a computer driven key storage system.
This might sound like a very elaborate and expensive proposition.
I want to ask the rest of you Would this be technically feasible?
As it stands today a css encoded dvd will prevent the operating system and the dvd burner from reading the dvd vob files.
Actually a working drm model of such a thing would be cheaper built on a motherboard rather than installing the drm on a computer chip.
Recently i heard that microsoft came out with a new operating system that was immediatly slammed because microsoft had made claims that illegal cd and dvd ripping would be more difficult.
Microsoft denies all of these allegations.
November 3rd, 2005 at 6:39 am
Like what alot of us do already with region free/selectible DVD players?
November 3rd, 2005 at 6:49 am
If anything will, this will do it. Personally, I don’t think that they will ever get this to pass because the tech sector will come up to the plate and scream *NO WAY*
And about our right to bear arms, it will take a constitutional amendment to stamp that out. Do you know of anyone who would vote for that? I certianly don’t. It’s just like people saying that by the 2008 elections, the Republicans will find a way to get the terminator into the oval office. Good luck as that is also in the constitution that the President of the US must be a natural born citizen.
November 3rd, 2005 at 6:59 pm
It does seem odd, but Hollywierd and Organized criMusic seem to be doing everything in their power to muck up their own markets. All this strange stuff taken together is rather scary. The “anti-terrorism” legislation being considered in Australia, the lock-down mentality that is creeping into media and computer technology, RFID chips, cell phone tracking, UK government officials pushing for data retention on the net, etc, etc, etc… A paranoid person could come to the conclusion that some nefarious secret sect of ultra powerful people was setting us up for a global takeover. Where did I put that tinfoil hat?