Tech Industry To Hollywood: Slow Down, Camper

negativethirsty wrote to us with a story here at Wired, most of the tech industry heads sent a letter to the motion picture studios, with a nod towards the US Senate. Basically, the tech industry does not want SSSCA to be pased, and want to work out a "technically feasible, cost effective solution" for protecting entertainment delivered in digital form.

Comments

Hate To Be A Naysayer ...

[Freneticus]

But I'm afraid conversing via rational letters just doesn't appeal to the RIAA, or the MPAA for that matter. God knows I've sent Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen a hefty number of 600-word letters expressing my eagerness to work with Hollywood to find "technically feasible, cost effective solutions" for planting my foot in their asses, and they've never once bothered to reply. Ingrates. At least Mr. Fritz sent me a letter telling me he's not involved with any digital-rights medium hearings. I like to see honesty in elected representatives!

Solution

[joebp]

The Active Power Denial Device

The Active Power Denial Device (APDD) is an intelligent device designed to prevent unauthorized copying of copyright material.

It connects in place of a 'normal' PSU and has a buzzer and a single switch marked 'Yes, I promise Mr RIAA/MPAA, I am not being a bad boy.'

Every 5 minutes, the buzzer goes off and you must press the button within 10 seconds, or else your computer looses all power for a 'punishment time' of 10 minutes, rising to 15 minutes if you are a Really Bad Boy©

Hardware Cost: One 556 timer IC, two resistors, two capacitors, one switch and one buzzer.

Re:Solution

[Tackhead]

> Every 5 minutes, the buzzer goes off and you must press the button within 10 seconds, or else your computer loses all power for a 'punishment time' of 10 minutes, rising to 15 minutes if you are a Really Bad Boy©
>
>Hardware Cost: One 556 timer IC, two resistors, two capacitors, one switch and one buzzer.

Circumvention cost: One soldering iron. Another capacitor. Another resistor. And life in prison.

When electronics are outlawed, only outlaws will build electronics.

Two years ago, I would have put a smiley on that.

If you're reading this, you're probably concerned. Explain to your representative that SSSCA is a Bad Thing because a nation without technology people is a nation doomed to fail. Block out the means of getting "interested" in technology and you cut down on the number of future innovators.

Just because Jack Valenti thinks your kids should be watching movies instead of playing with electronics doesn't mean that it's a good thing for your kid's educational prospects.

In other words . . .

[jdcook]

"They can't treat our pledges like that. Only WE can treat our pledges like that."h

Other way round?

[Ed Avis]

Perhaps the tech industry should get together and draft an Act that would restrict the output of Hollywood in order to protect computer manufacturers' profits.

For example, a movie would not be allowed to show computers in a negative light, nor to glorify 'hacking'. And there would be a statutory upper limit on how entertaining films could be, because otherwise people might spend too much time at cinemas and too little time at home playing computer games.

We have allowed the irresponsible 'film industry' to damage our profits for too long. If they can't sort it out, government should step in.

Slow Down Cowboy!

[sulli]

Congress requires you to wait 2 years between each successful denial of civil rights to allow everyone a fair chance at denying rights.

It's been 4 months since you passed 'USA PATRIOT Act'!

If this error seems to be incorrect, please provide the following in your report to the Majority Leader:

Name and Party
What steps caused this error
Whether or not you are collecting a sufficient amount of soft money from the lobbyists for this particular law
How many civil rights you successfully denied during the day

* Please choose 'formkeys' for the category!

Thank you.

Hypothetical analogy

[Bodrius]

We asked three high-school seniors to take these Corvettes and drive as fast as they could in the nearest highway, without regards for safety or concerns about law enforcement agencies.

The death toll is, so far, 23 victims, and 36 wounded.

We would like you to ask Ed, Bud and Chuck about their experiences, but unfortunately two of them died in the accidents; Ed made it to a Mexican brothel, but we haven't heard about him ever since.

Now, multiply that by the thousands of teenagers that get driving licenses before they get to college. This is not a problem that can be solved in short order. It's going to require education and discipline.

Above all, it's going to require that we increase the insurance fees for teenagers by a couple thousands per cent.

We ask you to support our cause by buying our compulsory insurance for houses with teenagers within three blocks of the residence area, and by keeping your irresponsible children away from the vehicles. This experiment of ours has clearly shown what happens in everyday America.

Excuse me, you have a question? Of course we believe these represented typical conditions of teenage driving. What do you mean by that? Security!