Consensus At Lawyerpoint
Seth Schoen writes "The
EFF has started
a weblog about the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG), called "Consensus At Lawyerpoint". This is the EFF's first-ever blog, the brainchild of new EFF staffer Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing blogging fame. Consensus At Lawyerpoint covers the efforts of Hollywood -- with the complicity of consumer electronics and computer companies -- to impose
a new government mandate for copy controls in digital TV devices.
This mandate would outlaw tuner cards for digital HDTV, unless they included DRM (and prevented the end-user from getting
a cleartext recording). PVRs and VCRs might be allowed, but only
if all their outputs were encrypted. Since all TV broadcasting
in the U.S. is supposed to be digital by 2006, this could have an
enormous effect on technology and on the competition for
video standards in the marketplace. We hope that the blog format will help us get the word out and let interested people see what this group is up to." Interesting for a couple of reasons, both the subject matter (the beloved SSSCA/CBDTPA) and the method.
Whatever happend to the air waves belonging to the people and the brodcasters using them as a privilege?
CSS on DVDs is one think (still evil if you ask me) but on brodcast TV when dose the madness end?
I can see my donation to the EFF was worth every cent.
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.