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New Bill Threatens to Plug "Analog Hole"
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Fri Nov 04, 2005 01:04 AM
from the information-wants-to-be-encrypted dept.
from the information-wants-to-be-encrypted dept.
ThinSkin writes "In an effort to encourage consumers to embrace digital content, The Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting a bill that would restrict owners of analog devices from recording analog content. For instance, if a fan wishes to tape a Baseball game on his VCR, the VCR would re-encode the content of that game and convert it into a digital form, which would then be filled with right restrictions and so forth. The process would be driven by VRAM (Veil Rights Assertion Mark), a technology that stamps analog content with DRM schemes."
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Dupity Dupe (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dupity Dupe (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Dupity Dupe (Score:5, Insightful)
Much like the Sony rootkit article, this getting duped as much as possible is actually a very good thing.
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This doesn't matter for us...! (Score:4, Funny)
So, of course, most
Re:This doesn't matter for us...! (Score:5, Insightful)
So this crazy DRM stuff really will have some effect on illegal downloaders: It will increase the number of people who do the same thing, increasing the quality and quantity of the files available, while making it less likely for each given individual that she'll get in trouble. If there is going to be a realistic move to reduce piracy, it will have to involve making it convenient to stay legal and play by the rules. These DRM roadblocks do just the opposite. The more of these stunts I see, the less wrong piracy starts to seem. It's like they try to punish the people that play by the rules. Yeah, what an incentive!
Parent
Re:This doesn't matter for us...! (Score:4, Insightful)
my experience has been that downloading has two major upsides: EVERYTHING is available, and everything is free.
piracy will increase if nothing changes simply because a generation is growing up accustomed to free product. It won't make sense to pay. It will only get worse as more people become web-centric.
I can't speak as to the effects of DRM, but understanding the fundamental psychology of the consumer/downloader is important.
Take your average convenience store... tell the clerk to disappear and monitor the cameras for a half an hour. Only a small number of people will leave the cash for their purchase on the counter. Most will loot and bail.
The music industry has fucked up by letting too many people get shit for free for too long. It's a culture dynamic. Hollywood is a little better - they got these download deals jumping off on college campuses where you get billed on tuition statements for the shit you download.
Let me get used to free shit; don't get mad if I don't want to pay later.
As for this DRM shit, it's desperation, but what are the record companies gonna do?
Parent
Re:This doesn't matter for us...! (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh, iTunes shows that a lot of people are willing to pay fair and square just for convenience. You're never going to reel in the people who want free no matter what, but you can easily reel in the people who want convenience, ala GP post.
Parent
Re:This doesn't matter for us...! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who just want free stuff. I end up being a pirate because I want to watch Battlestar Galactica, but I'm not willing to pay for cable and some sort of recording device in order to watch one show. So I download episodes and then buy the DVDs when they come out. Spare me any "you could just wait until it comes out on DVD!" comments, please. I can't be bothered to get upset about the idea of adding a six month delay to the time my $40 goes into the bank account of a multinational corporation.
If I could buy the episodes as they air for a reasonable price, I would totally do that. I would be open to a number of possibilities:
- The cost of a season's worth of episodes adds up to the cost of the DVD set plus $10 for being able to watch them early. When it's released, I pay for shipping and get the DVDs.
- Same as above, but the total is e.g. 50% of the cost of the set, and I pay shipping plus the remainder and the convenience fee.
- The episodes are super-cheap, e.g. fifty cents each, and I just buy the DVD set at the store.
Option three is the easiest, but options one and two let Sci-Fi or whoever take a bigger cut from the DVD set price by selling directly to me.
Of course, this will never happen, because for it to be as convenient as it already is for me, the downloaded episodes would have to be non-DRM'd, encoded using a quality codec, and free of commercials. I'm sure this would be a huge hit, but the marketing department would never let it happen.
Why do I say a huge hit? Look at something that cannot be reasonably DRM'd, like photographic (as opposed to video) porn. There are tons of porn siterips on p2p networks, but it's still a very profitable industry. They probably realize that the money lost from bootlegs is less than what it would cost to come up with a protection system combined with the cost due to lost customers who weren't willing to put up with the hassle.
It would probably do well even with DRM. I wouldn't be a customer, but there are plenty of other people out there who are happy to deal with iTunes (which I find crippled beyond what I'm willing to exchange money for).
Parent
Re:This doesn't matter for us...! (Score:4, Insightful)
While that's true for SOME of the downloaders, according to a survey Australia (after the UK) has the largest number of illegal downloaders of television shows. In Australia, it is extremely difficult to get a lot of American shows, with their being quite a big delay for all but the most popular ones. Unfortunately I couldn't find a link, but that says something. It says that there is a correlation between stuff being inaccessible in a timely manner and easy format, and illegal downloads.
Parent
No Way !! (Score:4, Funny)
It *is* related (Score:5, Insightful)
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To be debated yesterday... (Score:5, Informative)
So how about a news article discussing the first round of debates?
Here's a link to the bill [72.14.207.104].
Re:To be debated yesterday... (Score:5, Informative)
They talk about the broadcast flag as well, but is from Thursday and about plugging the analog hole.
From http://judiciary.house.gov/Oversight.aspx?ID=202 [house.gov]
Parent
More info from EFF (Score:4, Informative)
Re:More info from EFF (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Who are they kidding? (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if such a bill were to be passed, it would be laughed at as the public went on its merry way using older analog and unencumbered digital devices.
Re:Who are they kidding? (Score:4, Insightful)
I didn't used to think so. But upon reflection I've changed my mind. I used to think there's no way the government could put the mp3 genie back in the bottle, but for the most part that's exactly what's happened.
Look, any government that can make growing and consuming a plant in your house illegal can make analog recording illegal.
Parent
Re:Who are they kidding? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yet many of us are being forced to adopt digital TV and Radio.
Re:Who are they kidding? (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Most if not all polititions are lawers who game the system in their favor.
3. DRM will be another nail in the coffin to inforce the limit of free speech.
We know what kind of rules and regulations are being (or trying at least) to limit the freedom of speech in the blogisphere. Now the scumbags inside the DC beltway want to limit speech of the podcasters.
Yes... I'm paranoid. But given the trends lately, can you *really* blame me?
TRUST NO ONE!
Parent
Re:Who are they kidding? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. By definition in-fact.
Oh yeah, you'd be laughing for a few years... Then your digital recorder will break down, and you'll stop laughing.
Better to start now.
Parent
Re:Who are they kidding? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Well honey, back then you could look at the TV directly and it wasn't just a display of digital static. You could see the images and video right there on the screen as plain as day in an unencrypted format. Then the MPAA realized that people were still able to take a camcorder and record that display and got Congress to pass the Video Content Protection Act of 2008 to require the DRM-enabled goggles."
Actually, hell, that's not sad, I'm looking forward to it. After the Internet gained popularity I started to watch less and less TV and I haven't been to a movie theater in 18 months. More of our content and entertainment will simply come via the Internet in the future instead of the passive television interface that couch potatoes are used to. We just need to ensure that we never allow the powers that be to take away our right to publish our own content with no restrictions (i.e. personal websites, blogs, home videos and photos... anything not created by a major media company).
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Seriously (Score:3, Funny)
I'm just about ready to submit this to Leno for Headlines... :)
How about THIS idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Decent books with CDs - sure you can download the tracks of the internet but you get a really nice package if you buy the legit copy.
They can stick all the DRM they want onto a CD - it doesn't force people who think it's poor value to buy it. I think DRMed "CDs" are poor value & refuse to buy them on principle; so all they are doing is shrinking their potential market antagonizing their customers while the MP3s roam free on P2P.
Put out something worth buying and I'll buy it. Video recorders that restrict use are poor value - I'll stick with my old one thank you very much...
Analog Holes! (Score:3, Funny)
Oh wait, nerves use analog signals. All nerves must carry DRM!
My "favorite" part (Score:5, Interesting)
Of all the disingenuous malarky. "Incent the consumer". Since when did "incent" become synonymous with "bufu"?
They want to keep me from making copies of stuff I buy, so if it gets ruined I have to buy another one. Or so I can only play it from the media I bought it on.
Guess what, pally: most of the stuff I listen to is on sweet old vinyl. I want to preserve the music from my analog media, and the best way to do that is digitally. But don't try to tell me I can't do whatever I want with something I buy, as long as I don't try to give it to someone else.
put in copy prevention and lose copyright (Score:5, Insightful)
I see copy prevention technology as being no different conceptually from a trade secret. If you decide to hide a technology as a trade secret rather than sharing a technology through a patent then your technology can be reverse engineered legally and you get no protection under law. The trade off is that society gets access to your new technology and you get legal monopoly for a number of years. If you don't share the technology via a descriptive patent, then you don't get a legal monopoly. So, similarly if you decide to prevent copying using technology rather than by using copyright law, then you should get no benefit under the law because you are ultimately depriving society of the content if it is never released in a copyable form.
Re:put in copy prevention and lose copyright (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:put in copy prevention and lose copyright (Score:5, Informative)
They also got copyright's purpose wrong. You'd really think they'd teach people about the Constitution in law school.
Since apparently they don't, though, the writers of the Constitution were very clear on what copyright's purpose is, and they got it dead wrong. Here's the relevant portion:
"The Congress shall have Power...To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" -United States Constitution, Section 8 (emphasis mine)
Note two important things from that passage: Firstly, the purpose of copyrights is to promote the progress of science and art. (NOT the wealth of scientists and artists!) Since copyright and patents by definition restrict sharing and reuse of information, which is necessary for progress in science and art, they also put in another provision: such restrictions must be for a limited time. A period which someone born today will not outlive is not, for any intents or purposes, a "limited time," not in any meaningful sense. The "limited time" provision implies to me that it should be the minimum amount of time necessary to encourage creators to create-which is the time at which they can generally turn a profit. Since most copyrighted/patented material turns a profit within 5-10 years (or never will), and creators would keep creating even if that's all the time they got, why have it longer?
Copyright is not about the "interests" of creators, except so far as recognizing such interests encourage them to continue creating. Copyright and patent are for the benefit of the public-and when it fails any longer to serve the public, to the benefit of the rights holders, it fails to the extent it does so.
Also note that copyrights and patents are not treated like property. Congress may not seize your property for public use unless they pay you just compensation for it-that's right in the Constitution. Yet, they are REQUIRED to make it so that copyrights and patents are released to the public after a set period of time. Is there any clearer indication that the law does and should not consider such things "property"?
Parent
What?? (Score:5, Interesting)
However, devices sold before the date the proposed legislation would be enacted, such as today's televisions, would be grandfathered in, according to the terms of the legislation. In addition, devices that were designed "solely of displaying programs," and ones that could not be "readily modified" for redistributing content would also be exempt.
If all the old capture cards, VCR's, DVR's and the like are going to be 'Grandfathered' in, what's the goddamn point? I mean, anyone with enough technical knowledge to do this, is already going to have the equipment, and I sure as hell am not going to throw it away because a new bill passes.
Analogue Rights Management? (Score:4, Insightful)
We only need to avoid those chips being installed into our brains in order to enforce the brohibition to tell our friends about the football match we looked at. We paid for one private view, not for a public performance!
*sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm bored of this stupid timeline... you know:
P2P services arise
RIAA/MPAA kills one
P2P piracy increases due to consumers being pissed off that the RIAA/MPAA has no respect for their rights (or their tastes... this summer had nothing good in the theatres aside from the Guide, you know)
RIAA/MPAA freaks and claims P2P services are to blame, inviting legislation/technology that fucks fair use while not doing any real good
P2P piracy increses, for much the same reasons as before, while homebrew programmers work around the new legislation/technology
RIAA/MPAA freaks
P2P piracy increses
A quote from a relevant link of the article:
"We have a bright young public who sees nothing wrong with downloading...it's going to destroy the copyright industry, it seems to me
- Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
You're right, Dianne. But you haven't quite gotten the point.
Unregulated, P2P users were still buying good CDs. But every time new anti-p2p legislation is enacted, new anti-circumvention technology added, and for each p2p site shut down, it alienates the Industries from their customers. Each time, the animosity that was once limited to the tech-savvy grows ever outward into people who'd never have thought bad of their content providers.
There are easy ways to fix this; one is to stop with the lawsuits. Worst. Press. Ever. Another is to start producing quality. People won't want to steal that which is actually worth paying for. The real item is to fix copyright law. 95 years past the original author's death is rediculous. How about 15 years past initial release? If I knew I could, for example, download episodes of the original Battlestar Galactia without legal repercussions, I might reconsider downloding Sci Fi's Season 2 DV cap that's floating on Bittorrent.
This law doesn't matter to anyone with a brain. A TV card with an offending chip can be "repaired" by anyone determined enough. You'd have to integrate your crap into the DAC and MPEG-4 encoders of every device, then hope someone doesn't hack the controls out of the software, or that someone doesn't make an open source version, fully functional (and easily modified), on the premise of interoperability.
Yeah, release the drivers for linux in closed source code. Someone will build ones for their amiga system and claim interoperability. Release for amiga, and you'll have the BeOS people doing it. Do BeOS, and there's a few flavors of BSD that would be clean. BeOS covered? How about Minix? You're not going to win here without spending a few billion in development, and then you'll still lose to those who don't cower under a legal premise and have names like "Thundulator". The term is "Unenforcable", or, in colloquial terms, "Useless fuck of a law".
Meanwhile, the cycle's going to go on until either the MPAA/RIAA have run out of money to throw at the problem, due to the combination of lack of consumers willing to pay to be fucked in the ass, or until they basically cow under - and eat what crumbs consumers will give them AFTER the content creators have been paid - like the good little middle-management fucktards they are.
In conclusion, Dianne is partially right. Their either will be legal AND free P2P, or there won't be an RIAA/MPAA. Actually, I'm kinda pushing for both.
Makes your Tivo unable to record (Score:3, Insightful)
(1) Copy Prohibited Content. An Analog Video Input Device shall not record or
cause the recording of Copy Prohibited Content in digital form except for
retention for a period not to exceed 90 minutes from initial receipt of each unit
of such content, including retention and deletion on a frame-by-frame,
minute-by-minute or megabyte-by-megabyte basis, using a Bound Recording Method,
and provided that such content shall be destroyed or otherwise rendered unusable
prior to or upon expiration of such period.
And in unrelated news... (Score:5, Funny)
A new closed captioning system for home video use was announced. The device is capable of writing arbitrary bit streams into various lines of the vertical blanking interval data, to allow the addition or modification of closed caption data for personal use and home viewing.
Note that posession of this device within the United States is a felony punishible by exile to the New York or Los Angeles Maximum Security Prisons.
Not the only hole being plugged (Score:5, Interesting)
If it ends up never having a stereo socket, and subsequent devices don't have an audio output either, we could be seeing the beginnings of a closed system which stops "pirates" in their tracks by sending audio directly to a device which lives inside your ears.
Although there are bluetooth products out there which have audio out, they may soon start becoming scarce if this is indeed how the industry intends to keep music in a closed loop.
Christ I hope they pass this and worse (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, pass this sucker. Make copyrights last forever. Make story plots patentable. Go ahead. See how much control you have over popular culture, you morons. Watch popular culture pass right on by, out of your control, beyond your puny stilted imagination. Paint yourselves into corners of your own making, spend all your energy fighting each other and hoarding and enhancing your little corner of the past, while the future bypasses you utterly and forever. While you think of a zillion ways to regurgitate your patented storyline, which is all you can do because your competitors have their own patented storylines which they are busy regurgitating, people will develop their own tools which they will share freely, and other people will swap these and improve these and make their own unpatented stories and their own uncopyrighted and locked down culture.
You morons will be left holding ancient patented and copyrighted dreck which has been projectile vomited to a fare-thee-well because you have a 300 year patent on it, or a 500 year copyright on it, and heaven knows Disney has to protect Micky from all those hordes who have only one goal in mind: how to appropriate Mickey for their own perverted uses. Yes, that's right, the truth is out now, I have seen the transcripts of the meetings. Sony wants nothing more than to lock up Mickey for themselves, they have wet drems at board meetings when they salivate at the prospect of hijacking Mickey if you don't keep thsoe patents and copyrights in force. They have entire teams of lawyers searching for loopholes to grab Mickey form your slippery paws because you slipped up and saved a few megabucks by not hiring that one brilliant lawyer before Sony did.
Morons, I say, morons.
The unpaid geek workforce just got more important (Score:4, Insightful)
When it comes to DRM / copy protection circumvention, I see my role as unpaid geek in just the same way. It's my job to make sure that proper the DRM-defeating disc ripping tools are available and easy to use, no-CD game cracks are swapped in, and I tell people about the little disclaimers to watch out for when buying CDs.
I see the concept of 'plugging the analog hole' as nothing more than exploitation of non-technical consumers. A year ago, timeshifting on VHS was a non-issue. If the cartels choose to make it one, I'll damned well react by spreading my techspertise across the widest possible consumer base I can. The more people who fall outside the 'casual copier discouraged by simple protection' category, the weaker their case for persisting with this rubbish.
they are scared (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:they are scared (Score:5, Insightful)
I run my own production house. It's a small business but it's very successful. My first impression (after RTFA) is that wow - if this passes I'm going to have to take out my first business loan ever when it's time to replace my existing gear. My second impression - I wonder if I'll be granted a license to continue working.
They are scared. The industry is realizing that it's not how much money you throw at something (though that isn't always a liability) that determines [potential] quality, it's how much talent and desire/passion is put into all aspects of it. The technology to make a feature film is available for $700 at Best Buy (take my word for it - it is). Everyone has access to it. Not everyone can do it though - make the feature film - that's where the talent and desire/passion part comes in. But the technical hurdles have been eliminated. Everything I use professionally in my business comes from Best Buy or a similar store (mass availability) or I build it myself. It's not because I'm cheap (oh I loove spending the paycheck), but because I'm smart in what I buy. I know my gear inside and out: I know the flaws and compensate for, I know the strengths and take advantage of, I instantaneously adjust and react to circumstances, I'm dedicated/talented/passionate. If it wasn't for my abilities, yeah, I'd have to go out and spend the big $$$ to buy more expensive gear to compensate (or more likely, I probably wouldn't have had the desire to run my own show).
That is what is scary to those who've invested $$$ into the existing system. It's no longer guaranteed that having a $50-100k Varicam or Cinealta setup will produce 'quality' or draw a crowd. Conversely, it's no longer guaranteed that a $3k MiniDV setup will be schlock and unwatchable. Hell, the darling posterchild of indy/Holly cinema everywhere: film (and its outrageous cost) VS. digital doesn't even really matter anymore - think of all the crap movies out there that *should* be good simply because they were shot on film or had huge insane budgets. The most important component in any production is the talent 1) behind the camera and 2) infront of the camera. The hardware simply doesn't matter like it used to. The money, while more helpful and important than the gear, is less important. Where there's a will, there's a way.
This is just one more attempt by some greedy narrow-viewed 'only in the present' entity to yet again subject America (the land of potential, the land of chance and opportunity and fortune, etc) to the great averaging and Lowest-Common-Denominator compressing. They want to forcibly make the price of entry significantly higher - legalize away the chance of undiscovered greatness. Further seperate the haves from the havenots. More control where they otherwise wouldn't have it.
It's the poor carpenter who blames his tools. What happens when the carpenter can't have any tools?
Parent
strange definition of "illegality" (Score:5, Interesting)
They are? In what way? If I record something on Hi-8 and later want it on VHS, I can do that, and I have paid for it. I have paid for it with the fees I paid for blank media.
The question we should be asking is the legality of asserting copyrights on content that cannot be copied and can never fall into the public domain; technological restrictions on copying and copyright ought to be mutually exclusive.
The time, the near future (Score:5, Funny)
You sit at a cluttered bench in a darkened back room, a single reading lamp illuminating a riot of ciruits and gleaming mechanical assemblies. Old stuff. Valuable. Practically priceless, since they cut off the Malaysian pipeline. A wisp of smoke caresses your face, carrying the scent of vaporized resin, molten tin, and lead. A bead of sweat rises on your forehead. This work is delicate: this piece is old, and if the traces lift that would be just too bad.
The sharp clang of a brass bell and the slam of the door break your concentration. "Damn," you mutter, "who the hell can that be."
You slip through the curtain, careful not to reveal any of the very incriminating goods back there, and let out a low whistle. It's a dame, and what a dame.
"Can you help me?" she asks.
"If you're looking for baseball cards," you reply, indicating the dusty glass cases. "Can I interest you in a Roger Clemens, he's real meat."
"Meat?"
"Yeah, you, know, pre-virtual." You watch her closely. She's hard to read, but one thing is certain, no broad ever strolled through this neighborhood at a eleven at night shopping for a goddam baseball card.
"A friend sent me," she says, a bit nervously.
"Oh, yeah, what's his name." Your eyes narrow suspiciously.
"Maybe you'll recognize him," she say, reaching into her purse.
You suck your breath involuntarily through your teeth. "Ipod," you whisper, "old by the looks of it."
"Original firmware" she purrs.
Original firmware. Easier to penetrate than a bus station ho. But this whole situation stinks bad. You're practically the only one left; better guys than you didn't last because they coudn't smell a setup. This lady may not know about the syndicate takover of baseball in '10, but she's very au courant about stuff she has no business being.
"Lady, you must have me confused with somebody else. Monkeying with one of those things is very illegal. I don't know where you found it, but I suggest you turn it into the Department of Free Expression right away."
"Oh, I don't think I have the right man," she purrs, a glint of steely amusement in her eyes, which flick down toyour right hand.
Suddenly you become aware of the smell of hot lead. Idiot! You never put down the damned soldering iron. If she had be DFE you'd be iced by now. You'd be lucky to be iced, instead of declared "illegal information operative" and put on a plane to one of their offshore IIO interrogation facilities.
"OK, lady, we can talk, but it's gonna cost ya." After all, that stunt you just pulled on the soldering iron took ten years off your life. Retirement is looking really attractive.
DRM-Free Analog will NEVER go away (Score:4, Interesting)
My parents bought one of the very first model VCRs ever made, and at over 20+ years old, it *still* records and plays. Unrestricted analog will NEVER go away. Even if, one day many decades from now, the last unrestricted analog device finally breaks and can't be repaired, people will smuggle them in from other countries.
They may as well try to license and restrict water, air, sunlight, addition, subtraction, and english grammer along with D/A conversion.
There will always be a market for freedom. Always.
Re:New meaning to an old word (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:New meaning to an old word (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole point of copyright is that it's the idea that matters*; and yet, once we can finally decouple the idea from the carrier medium by making it into a stream of bits that can be sent across the world within fractions of a second, we see that trying to reapply the previous metaphor of the physical object requires that we impose such drastic controls, since the most natural thing to do is to spread information, unlike when the idea depended on the replication of the media as well---you can't click and drag a second copy of a book from the first one.
I think that the selling of ideas by copy cannot be done anymore, unless you impose this unnatural and invasive system onto the flow of information, and that it's going to be a painful process to widely come to this realization. Everyone struggles to find a replacement system to compensate for the loss of by-copy sale (a ransom system? a patronage system?), but surely the search for more money does not trump the free exchange of ideas.
* Yeah, that's probably not exactly right, but IANAL, and I need sleep, so it's the best I can do.
Parent
Stop watching (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I think that the price of having to watch nine minutes of commercials for every twenty one minutes of programming is too high, especially considdering the volume of really crappy shows on T.V. (there are good ones, they are just a rarity.) That I cannot tape it and watch it when I have free time is too much. I'm not organizing my life to fit their schedule.
Don't devote energy fighting them. Let them waste all the money they want buying politicians and lobbyists. They can rule their twisted little corner of the airwaves with an iorn fist. (Insert obligatory princess Leia line from SW here.) I just quit watching TV. It's amazing how much other stuff there is to do in life when you stop watching TV, and how much free time you have to do it.
(For example, you can go post frothing neo-luddite rants about 'killing your tv' on your favorite internet discussion board...)
Parent
First they came for my TV (Score:5, Funny)
Then they came for my games... outrageous in-game commercial placements, interrupting game play to see the latest offers in entertainment. But I didn't care too much because after the first 15 versions of Civ, the gameplay tends to blend together anyway.
Then I tried to go to the movies, but they took that away too. In-movie commercials, and quarter-time commercial breaks while they "change the digital reels upstairs". But I didn't care cause I've seen enough cars blow up to last me a lifetime. Even the Simpsons parody of that got old already.
Next was my cell phone. Every two minutes, my phone calls were interrupted by a 15-second product slogan. My cell phone Pacman turned into the Pepsi sign overnight. But I didn't care cause I hate phones anyway.
When all the indoor entertainment was taken away and I hate to face the daylight, they came for that too. Huge billboards sprung up everywhere, they started painting the roads with Ford logos, the traffic lights were hung from McDonald's arches, and no building was left untouched without a product placement (Informed Consumer Act of 2015). I had nowhere to go to escape.
Finally, when they came to tattoo corporate logos on my family, I could do nothing. I couldn't even call for help, for I had already tossed my cell phone.
Parent
Re:New meaning to an old word (Score:4, Interesting)
Frankly, it shouldnt be that much of a struggle. In essense it's just another subsidy/welfare system, where we take in money in the form of taxes (equivalent to the monopoly rent on artificially scarce 'protected' items), and give to those we wish to subsidize. Currently, the system is indirect, as the money usually goes to other parties than the ones we wish to subsidize, and the monopoly rent is an indirect tax that doesnt quite show up in the government budget, but that doesnt make it any less real.
Once you realize the whole IP issue is just an economic sleight-of-hand illusionist trick, you realize it isnt that hard to come up with a solution either. Like any other such system it's just a question of how much the taxpayers will accept paying for, and how to best use those taxes for the specific purpose they are supposed to serve.
Parent
Re:New meaning to an old word (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:As a record store owner. (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22My+bu
Parent
Re:As a record store owner. (Score:5, Interesting)
Riiight. That's just too bad, isn't it. If your business model is suddenly irrelevant, that's just way too damn bad for you.
Anyway, the real purpose of this bill is to prevent people from recording their own movies. Every camcorder made now will have to have DRM protection -- which will allow the movie industry to prevent you from recording independent films. With no independent films, the MPAA will be the only game in town for movies. Profit profit profit.
I wish Congress would tell the MPAA and RIAA that if they keep lobbying for this shit they'll repeal copyright completely. That would be so hilarious that I think I'd cry.
Parent
Re:Mod patent down (Score:3, Funny)