Consumer Electronics, Hollywood Work Against 'Video Napster'

cadfael writes: "The EETimes reports that "a new working group within the existing Copyright Protection Technology Working Group (CPTWG) will review a technical method for flagging video content that is not authorized for Internet transmission. ... The group was formed at the suggestion of Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), in a letter sent roughly two weeks ago to Jack Valente, head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)." Does this make sense in the light of this article?"

Comments

people say "if it's one's and zeros, I can copy it

[Anonymous Coward]

", but the truth is, that's only true if you can see the one's and zero's yourself, and there aren't many of them.

Otherwise, you're using a device to copy it.
It's like prohibition.
"Pshaw, how can they prohibit ALCOHOL? I can make it myself using nothing but widely available, cheap-priced hardware from the grocery store. Heck, I could grow my own wheat and produce it from that."
Well guess what?
I'm 18 years old, and if I were living in Boston, I would have a great deal of difficulty buying alcohol. Like, to the point that I couldn't do it without someone's help, or without doing something like physically stealing it out of the store. And I'm on the resourceful side.

The fact is, if laws say "New law. Every digital device must now have one bit attached to the end of each packet, or for a stream, one bit every three bytes, even at the cost of special translators on each end of the line. Is your keyboard non-compliant? Then you need a translator before it hits the PS2 slot, so that if your keyboard sets the non-copy bit, it stays set.
Translate that bit across anything that moves stuff. Keep track of that bit in your file system. Have it completely transparent to everything, just an extra bit. And if it's set to 1 at any point down the chain, don't copy it to anything marked a file system."
Sure, hackers can circumvent this. I'm 18, and I know enough programming to grep my kernel source for "copy bit" and insert a few //'s in choice places before recompiling.
Sure this is "trivial", but so is "growing marijuana." I bet you're allowed to own marijuana seeds (hemp seeds?) if you don't grow the plant and don't distribute it. I bet it'll be the same way with kernel source. (Can have it, as long as you don't modify it to get rid of the copy bit.)

Last time the word marijauna showed up in a slashdot article? Never.

We're not complaining.

So let's not complain.

Paul T.

preemptively spelled a la Taco.


Note: this post done as AC because I can't log in to change my password without having it appear plaintext in the URL. Do you people have ANY idea what it's like to see your password plaintext? In the URL? Damn near gives me a heart attack. Same thing when a site "helpfully" sends me an e-post card with it in bright letters:
Username: whatever
Password: tipx9pa
Gah!! It's like having your housekeys mailed to you in a very, very thin envelope.
Of course, it doesn't help if you use 7-word diceware phrases for every password, which have 128 bits of entropy and are such a pain to generate and to remember that you make just one and use it on everything from slashdot to your encrypted file system. 128 bits of entropy. Unbreakable. Until it appears in the URL. And in the came-from logs of whatever site I visit next. And all over the local filesystem of wherever I log in with netscape or I.E. at a computer other than my own. Gah again! (Note: one trick I've learned is that if you want to permanently get rid of all traces of what URL's you've visited in netscape or I.E., simply run your filesystem through a few passes from dev/random. Here's linux on a floppy. for you to boot the target computer off of.)

Did anybody else notice...

[jmccay]

Through-out the article, the big companies are more worried about their money stream? The want to get paid for the copywrights they "own".
Copywrights are useless in today's society. It is time these companies realise that. People will pay for what they consider good, but if people think that they are paying too much, they will pirate the media (such as Napster).
For example, it is not way off the mark to assume that IF the HDTV movement hit mainstream, consumers will eventually be forced to to record their shows in a poorer quality than the original signal so as to protect the rights of the copywright holders. IF the media companies deems the consumer worthy, they might allow them to record the high quality media, but this will come at a cost. We might not be allowed to fast foward through commercials like most of us do when we record our favorites shows so we can actually watch them--this would probably be done with some type of modifications to the hardware &/or software. The other way they might do it is we "pay for the right" to record our shows and watch them at our convenience. There will be strings attached to this option too. Strings such as you can only watch the record x number of times and/or only on the original machine. Some of these options are being persued as we speak/read.
These companies are now abusing the copywright rights. It is time we dtop giving them the power to do so!!! The companies are no longer pursuing what the customer wants in entertainment and services. The companies are pursuing what will strengthen there bottomline! They will eventually learn that this will come back to haunt them. Consumers will eventually get fed up with being told what they can and cannot do! Consumers will then take actions like we saw with Napster--pirating! It will be virtually impossible to stop--mainly because the companies will only pursue legal means of stopping this new rise in piracy! They have, and will have, forgotten that the consumer's happiness is what sells there products.
Another step that will be taken by consumers at this upcoming time will be to return the legal purchased products, and cancel the legal purchased services. The consumers will then turn to pirated products and services!
All these companies need to get a wake up call. They simply _CANNOT_ control the market the way they are current tryig to do. The market has faught back, and will continue to fight back! THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE MUST LEARN TO COME OUT OF THERE CRYSTAL PALACES AND JOIN THE REAL WORLD!!!!! Consumers and the market will not tollerate this for long, and eventually not even the government will be able to help there industries. The market is a creature that cannot, and will not, be tamed. You can hold it for a short while, but the minute you turn your back, it will be on you like a wild animal and be out of your control!