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EFF Compiles Endangered Gizmos List
Hungry Student writes "The EFF has published an "Endangered Gizmos" list of technology that is at risk of extinction from the lobbyists of the entertainment industry. Extinct species include DVD X-Copy and Napster 1.0. Among those fighting for survival are Morpheus and HDTV tuner cards. The BBC has commentary on this as well." From the article: "The EFF intends the list to be part of a wider educational and awareness project, and it will be updated regularly as more gadgets and technologies are saved or killed off."
That other "nerd news" organizations use slashdot as a source, somone sees the new somewhere else after missing the original slashdot post and then re-submits it to slashdot a couple weeks later?
Still, dupes are far too common here and somone needs a good switch kick in the memory.
A Call For A New Slashdot Moderation Level!
I watched my dad sit at his PC trying to get his "free" song he won from a little contest a Burger King. The only thing that stopped him from loading his PC up with whatever DRM locked media player was the annoyance of having to register when trying to download the player.
My explanation of how the DRM locked tune would only work on his one PC and he could never play it anyplace else was all but pointless. He didn't understand, and didn't care. He just wanted a free song.
It's not the DRM that most users care about, they care about being annoyed by the DRM. Once the companies figure out how to put DRM onto PCs without pissing anyone off, it will be all over.
This is really stupid. Firewire drives and CD burners are not endangered. Likewise D/A and A/D converter chips.
It's misleading and confusing to include these in the classification with technologies like Morpheus, which looks to be heading towards a loss in court with the recent admissions that it tracked individual downloads, and HDTV tuner boards which are already scheduled to be phased out this year due to the broadcast flag rules.
we are moving back towards feudalism, although the fedualist pushers don't call themselves "royal".
The new "technofeudalists" are the huge transnational corporations, who are increasingly controlling the "laws" in various nations, overtly (open lobbying, trade associations,pushing "free trade" instead of "fair trade", etc) or covertly (bribing and blackmailing their boys into power in the "legitimate" governments, copting journalists to push propoganda, etc, etc). And it's very hard to control them, because corporations act as a group of people as to profits, but the responsibilities that a normal human person might have are not conclusive or extensive enough, witness time after time corporation-x gets busted for this or that. Usually it results in a fine, said fine monies then being pushed off onto the ultimate customers to pay. The corps themselves are rarely if ever actually busted up entirely, no matter how many times their officers/managers whatever get caught in illegal acts. And to make it worse, even if that happens, they can just "go bankrupt" and most of the same people involved can just go start up another string of corporations under new corporate person names and controlling addresses.
Corporations are very similar to the old concept of "royal bloodlines" in that regard, they persist generation after generation, with the twist they can just morph away and reform, to go on and continue with unethical or illegal practices. You can't really kill them off or revolt against them,like you could with some royal feudalist gang of rank "bluebloods" in ye olden days, not in any practical sense anyway and stay inside technological civilisation.
Lobbying groups have, for good or evil, led to many items being banned or pulled off the market.
"Real" Coca-Cola with real cocaine.
Carbon Tetracloride.
R-12 auto refrigerant.
Cars without modern emissions and safety systems.
Children's jackets with drawstrings.
50-70MHz FM radios.
TVs that can receive above channel 67.
Styrofoam burger boxes at McDonalds.
Many drugs and food additives.
ScotchGuard.
The list goes on and on.
The major difference now is that unlike the above, distrubiting the blueprints (source code) to make certain computer programs can land you in court for DMCA violations if you live in the wrong country, while nobody cares if you post instructions on how to manufacture Carbon Tetrachloride on your web site.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The first are the A/D and D/A converters. This is bad, because these devices are actually used in things well beyond the scope of music. Think your cars, think thermometers, think anything that requires a sensor and a computer. It's a sad day when people want to keep people from using tools because 'the tools might be used for something illegal'! This argument doens't fly with "physical" tools like an axe, screwdriver, or hammer, so why should it be made to apply to electronic tools? (We'd probably have a revolution if you had to be 'licensed' to manufacture or purchase a hammer!)
Well, actually, the DACs and ADCs were the only thing that piqued my interest. The argument I had about the 'regulate the use, not the tool' also applies to things like Napster and Morpheus, I suppose; but it doesn't apply to things like Betamax (the format - it would apply to "a tool used for recording stuff").
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
This is probably a bit off topic, but it's been bothering me and I would like to see what others think.
For broadcasts like satellite radio and television how can it possibly be illegal to intercept them and view their contents? I feel that if you don't want me to view your satellite feed, keep your electromagnetic radiation out of my back yard.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
This defilement of the English language only underscores my advice to all: Do not use a word, either spoken or written, until you've seen it used properly in a sentence.
One of my favorites: "walla" instead of "voila".
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.