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Preparing for the Broadcast Flag?
Couch Potato asks: "I'm worried that, come next July, the FCC mandated broadcast flag will soon take away all sorts of fair use rights I have long enjoyed. Given that there are only a few months left to make purchasing decisions, how best can one prepare for the advent of the broadcast flag?"
"I'm somewhat aware of projects like Myth TV, but it's not all that I want. Specifically, I want to make sure that I can record DVDs or similar files of any program I want off of cable, sattelite or broadcast TV, flag or not and without any other encumbering restrictions (such as the Macrovision DRM for DVDs) and without worry that someday they'll change something so that my old drivers and hardware are suddenly obsolete and useless when faced with updates to the formats. Note that this makes closed-source-only drivers an issue, because assuming the hardware can still be adapted to whatever they change on us, open-sources drivers can be modified and closed-source ones probably won't be, whether for legal or practical considerations. So then, what can someone with a modest budget do to make sure that their constitutional fair use rights don't succumb to planned obsolecense, like the VCR has?"
Hey, the FCC is an arm of the people you helped to elect. If you have a problem with what they're doing, you can either challenge their decisions in court (assuming that someone isn't already) or get people fired up to fight. What people fail to realize (assuming they're smart enough to realize when their corporate government is in the process of screwing them, anyway) is that they still have to elect congresscritters. If people really care about the issue, you can whip them into a frenzy and threaten the re-election prospect of the fat cats from your district.
If people don't care? Well, it's like the music industry's continued assault on aural quality. Too fucking bad. People are free to do as they will, and that includes fucking themselves over if they so choose.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
While on the topic, does anyone know if I buy a HD tunner card now, before they become extinct in July, if it will even work after the flag is issued?
I am using an AMD 1700+ CPU with 1 GB memory, an nVidia GeForce FX 5700 128MB board. I only have 80+GB space on the system right now (enough for around 5 hrs recording time ) but I will probably upgrade it later this year.
I bought this card because it does not have the broadcast bit and since it was made before July it will not be encumbered with all those restrictions.
I do not, however, plan on abusing that flexibility by sharing my recordings and thus ripping off the content owners. It is the thieves that feel it is thier right to steal from people just because they can that have brought this onerrous situation upon us.
Can't you just by cards made offshore that will not honor the broadcast flag? If there is a market someone will build them.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
Just buy an ATI TV tuner card before its too late.
Move to Canada!
/ducks
.. buy from Canada? :)
Wasn't this a worry when they first came out with DVDs, that you lost your ability to "archive" them? I'm sure that given some time, people will be able to easily defeat the broadcast flag with relative ease. Although the legality of doing so is questionable at best...
How to best prepare.
Stock up on:
Canned Food
Water
Yacht Batteries
Guns
Ammunition
link from Ars Technica
Unfortunately they're fighting it on a technicality - that Congress did not give the FCC explicit power to create the broadcast flag, and thusly they have no authority themselves to create it.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
Chris
"You can drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but It always comes roaring back again." - Tom Waits
like any other type of restrictive technology, 95% of the people won't care, the other 5% of us folks will find cheap and easy ways around it. Yeah it won't be legal, but the cops only care if you are selling them or distributing them in large quantities (on the internets).
Nothing different anti-CD copying measures, anti VHS copying measures, anti video-game copying measures, and so on.
Nothing new here, move along
Honestly. I haven't had a TV/Cable connection for the past seven years. I haven't missed it at all. All my friends drone on and on about the latest episode of "Star Trek: the Berman Tragedy" or "Friends II: Las Vegas," but I honestly don't envy their ability to keep track of the latest shows. So-called news regarding ideas like "Survivor: Soyuz," Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice," and sequels to "The Simple Life" just enforce my resolve to not care about television at all.
[
maybe I should break down and get one of those newfangled video to LP recorders...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
" Given that there are only a few months left to make purchasing decisions, how best can one prepare for the advent of the broadcast flag?""
Not worry about it.
1-I doubt it's going to be widely available come July.
2-It's a bad idea that's going to quickly be realized as a bad idea.
I doubt it's going to last long, especially for programming people pay for.
The DC Circuit Court isn't so sure the FCC has the right to make that rule.
I have no idea what you can do to try to sway the judicial system, as it's only 2 of 3 so far.
I guess you could contribute to the folks trying to take the FCC to court over this.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I found myself asking this same question, too. So I put the question to the makers of the EyeTV 500. This is their response:
"EyeTV 500 does not support the broadcast flag. Units bought before July 2005 will never support the broadcast flag. We will not update EyeTV 500 units bought before then to support the flag.
Thus, your EyeTV 500 will never support the broadcast flag. It will ignore flags, and not use DRM for any content. That means you'll have the maximum freedom possible with its recordings."
It's a little pricey, but it does the compression on the box. I don't have digital cable yet, but I may buy this come May/June just for the fuck of it since pre-July box prices will probably go up dramatically come July 2 (on the black market, of course, since the law bans all inter-state trade of these devices).
The IRS is the one organization that you don't want to fuck with. Remember, these are the guys who took down Al Capone.
My plans involve an underground bunker, stocked with old books and DVD's that will be stored in perfectly dark conditions to preserve them for as long as possible. Upon these DVD's are recordings of the great television shows and movies.
Upon the day of the broadcast flag, I will be taking my family into the bunker along with a supply of food, air, and other needs to last 100 years.
When my great-grandchildren emerge into the world after society collapses, all the old books (which were deemed illegal during the Copyright Stealing Prevention act of 2050) are burned and all eyeballs gouged out during the Copyright Memory Prevention Act of 2075, when humanity has children born without R/M/AA approved Eyeball Extractors coming to remove their ocular sockets to be installed with DCMA III approved cybereyes (which shut down if it appears the looker is attempitng to actually remember what they see to replay it in their mind later, which of course is a copyright violation), then my great-grandchildren will be able to use these books and DVD's as barter.
Hm - I wonder how much food they'll be able to buy with a copy of "Cryptonomicon". Maybe I should get another copy....
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
As with all laws, the authority comes from elected officials. So i recommend that you purchase an elected official. You can probably get one cheaper than you think.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
If you don't like it, move to another forum.
Step 1: Understand that 99.9% of shows on TV are crap anyway.
Step 2: Cease to care whether or not you can legally record them.
Step 3: Cancel your cable/satellite service.
Step 4: Download the 2 or 3 shows you really enjoy watching.
0 1 - just my two bits
the OP is trying to stay within the law.
Your assesment is kinda wrong.
You've never experienced things like a state tax filing amnesty? librariers that have fine amnesty?
never heard of realtors trying to close deals before laws change so they can be grandfathered in and legal?
the Question is,
"HOW BEST CAN I PREPARE MYSELF FOR SOMETHING THAT IS LEGAL"
not, how can I circumvent the law.
the advice being sought is in fact, ON THE SIDE OF LAW and wholly valid, I'm glad to see the topic, I was thinking about snapping up some hardware myself.
As I understand it- and I'd LOVE to be courteously corrected, the law only applies to products moved across state lines (or into the country) so a product manufactured, marketed and sold in the same US state, is actually still a possibility.
(fabrication facilitys then needing to be built in each state of course)
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Sure, you can stock up on pre-broadcast flag HDTV cards, and you can do all sorts of other tricks, but to do what you talk of for long-term goals, you're gonna need to work from the inside of the "system". Like others have said, big companies can spend all they want on re-election campaigns, but they still get elected by those who vote.
What most people forget about American democracy is that it is designed to work well in facilitating peaceful revolutions- when people care and vote. The blame for the sorry state the American government is in lies with nobody save every last American citizen who is currently enfranchised (older than 18, etc.). And I write this as an American citizen.
I wish I could write clever and witty sigs.
Once the broadcast flag becomes standard, can't the FCC be sued for violating the Supreme Court order mandating fair use in the Sony Betamax case? It would seem to be a slam-dunk of this argument is used.
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Can't you just by cards made offshore that will not honor the broadcast flag? If there is a market someone will build them.
And this is why any attempt to controll how an end user uses media will fail. The whole system will work as long as everyone plays ball. As soon as you have somebody that realizes they can make a better product by simply ignoring DMR/Broadcast flages/whatever, they will have 'built a better mousetrap'. And since implimenting copy protection takes extra effort, the product without it will cost the manufacturer/consumer less than other products.
And the best part is, if all the companies get together and conspire to squeeze out anyone who doesn't play ball, we just start filing anti-trust suits, and let the government dismantle them.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
You could try to stop time, progress and technical evolution. That way, your shiny new equipment will never become obsolete.
Sorry, that's a small jab. We can't predict what the future will bring. I can tell you this though...
If you want to be able to do things with bits that the powers that be try to stop you from doing, your best bet will always be had in the hobyist (read free software / oss) areas. This is because companies who want to compete and cooperate to get your money will b forced to play by the rules imposed by those would deny digital rights. Individuals will not bend to this, so the free stuff, while admitedly slower on the curve, will be your best bet, if freedom is your motivation. This means invest in your PC.
If you want digital input to your TV, go over DVI, but be sure that any set you look at will play non DRM encoded stuff. I believe the MPAA is attempting to mandate the broadcast of digital signals in a format which will limit rights. There are two types of digital interface on a television. My memory is sketchy here, I bought my set over 18 moonths ago. I do know though that there are a couple of different interface/protocol types, some of which use only the protocol which the MPAA is trying to define (in their favour). Be careful of that.
Problem being, too many americans are too busy watching their spoon-fed share of culture on TV to care what happens, as long as the crap keeps showing up on their bigscreen they're fat and happy.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I'm amazed at how many people think that simply not watching TV is any sort of solution.
Broadcast flags are utterly evil for two reasons.
First, they are contrary to our fair use rights to record programming via Universal v. Sony.
Second, they create perpetual copyrights. Under the current rules, broadcasters will even be able to stop recording of public domain programming. Why do broadcasters get greater rights than the creator?! That makes no sense. And what's so hard to understand about the phrase "for a limited time"?!
Merely sitting on the sidelines and ignoring the problem will NOT help! If and when broadcast flags succeed, similar systems will become even more commonplace.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Buy an HD tuner that doesn't respect the flag before 1 July 2005, or purchase any such preexisting device after 1 July 2005 (all non flag compliant devices can be resold after that date).
But it's not that simple, after all. Because the problem is TUNING the content you want to record, e.g., from a satellite provider or cable operator. And since more and more of the digital content is encrypted, and is only able to be tuned by devices sanctioned by the provider, and all such devices will respect the Broadcast Flag, the answer is to "What can I do to prepare for the Broadcast Flag?" is "Not much."
Unless, of course, you don't mind recording from an analog connection, such as composite video, S-video, or component video. But the FireWire ports that are, for example, also mandated on all HD/digital cable set top boxes after 1 July 2005 will be mostly encrypted. One might ask the question, if they're encrypted, then what the hell good are they? Indeed. But what can you do in the face of a cable provider whose call centers don't even know what FireWire is, or who argues that "technically" the FireWire ports are "functional" (as required by the FCC), even though their output is encrypted.
The real answer, of course, is that these ports will interact with OTHER 5C-compliant FireWire devices that also respect the Broadcast Flag. There's no way around it unless you go analog. And that INCLUDES all the nice things on the EFF's page. Sure, you can tune over-the-air HD channels and record them. And that's great. In some markets, that may account for a lot of content. But you won't be able to digitally record content that is flagged as Record Never that you're paying for from a cable or satellite operator, because you need THEIR EQUIPMENT to tune to those channels. (Or, something like a CableCard in - guess what - another device that respects the flag.)
All in all, we'll be able to do less with our current (i.e., digital) equipment than we could do with equivalent equipment (i.e., the VCR) 30 years ago. And most of the operators won't shoulder any of the blame. They'll just point the finger at laws or at the content providers. And then what is a customer to do? The only thing you really *can* do is write your elected officials, and provide feedback to the FCC. Or, not buy any flag compliant devices, which might ultimately prove to be a very hard thing to do.
In sum: anything you buy now won't guarantee you recording of ALL content you might legitimately have access to, unless you're ONLY concerned about OTA recording.
"We'll need 2000 crickets, 4 cans of Easy Cheese, and the fluid from 18 glowsticks for this plan to work...." - ph0n1c
Yes, I did buy a pcHDTV2000 card, more on general principles than anything else, but my overall attitude on the broadcast flag can be summed up in two words:
Screw them.
If the broadcasters insist upon making me not the master of my TV, PVR, and DVD player, then I shall not consume their product - I'll read a book, I'll work on my car/computer/house/physique, and generally be better off than I am now.
The manufacturers of HDTV sets aren't seeing quite the volume they want - guess what guys, if you continue to make things less friendly to the consumer they will not consume as much!
Perhaps we shall see a rise of "GPL TV" - people creating shows for download (Considering the success of Homestar Runner, this may not be as far-fetched as we might think). Imagine - a Star Dreck^WTrek that has somewhat sensible science and stories! A rendition of Starship Troopers that is actually faithful to RAH's vision!
But no matter what - if my TV does not recognize me as its lord and master, then it shall be summarily expelled from my castle.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Knowing a number of close friends that have worked in congressmen/senators' offices, I can tell you that writing/calling your congressmen will do.....NOTHING. They get ridiculous numbers of emails/calls a day (in addition to the normal spam and telemarketing no doubt), and just end up feeding it off on some intern who sends out cookie-cutter replies. No one in Washington or the state capitol wants to listen to you.
First, you need to know what the 19.3 megabit DTV "Transport Stream" looks like. The "Broadcast Flag" is a small collection of bits embedded in "Transport Stream." DTV equipment will be required to watch (or listen) for those bits and take the appropriate action.
But suppose you know where those bits are, and what they mean, too. Why couldn't you simply flip the ones you don't like and then record or whatever? All you would need is a serial to parallel converter to turn the serial stream into a 16 bit parallel bus (for example) and them suck those bits into a DSP, where you do a little bit bashing. Then run them into a parallel to serial conervter to reconstruct the transport stream as seen by your digital disk recorder? If you have a commercially made unit, it will be looking for the flag bits, so it will know what it can or cannot do, but your freshly set bits tell it that this program is OK to record and play as long as you like.
I think such a device is likely to appear as a small plastic box with 2 firewire ports and a wall-wart, selling for $20 in a year or two.
Remember Macrovision on VHS? Do you know how easy that was to defeat? All you had to do was to make your VCR run with fixed video gain instead of AGC all the time. A little hardware hacking was all that was needed. This shouldn't be much worse. But don't try bit bashing after the compressed video is expanded. The data rate there is likely to be upwards of a gigabit, and most folks don't know how to make PCBs to handle stuff going that fast. This is precisely why the DRM folks want the interconnects to be 1 gigabit or faster. But remember, the "broadcast flag" must be readable in the 19.3 megabit transport stream.
An analog gray hair frantically clinging to the trailing edge of technology.
The broadcast flag is simply a flag that indicates that people are not entitled to do what people don't do anyway - Make multi-generational copies of broadcast media.
Not exactly... the broadcast flag will allow the control of recording, including the possibility of *not* being recordable at all. It's a possibility that you won't be able to timeshift some shows, and some won't be DVD writeable (which is how I store some shows for long term storage).
OK, I did that.
After I made love to your wife, my wife got rather annoyed with me. And she really got pissed when I kept at it after our first child was born.
I ended up having to move to Canada, and I already knew there was pr0n on the internets before I started, so where, precisely, was the win here?
wtf are you talking about. search the text of the US Constitution and you will not find the phrase "fair use".
/interpretation/ that the language actually present in the constitution denotes a "fair use right" -- and much as the "right to privacy", the "right to own a handgun", "the right to choice", and the "right to have gay sex", anything up to interpretation is likely to be re-interpreted.
/in writing/ and not rely on changing interpretation or to wait and see which pile of lawyers has the bigger money pile.
/interpretations/ centralising power not only left us with an FCC which could mandate the broadcast flag, it left us with not much choice other than to just take it in the arse when they mandate it. the FCC is just another massive government agency battling for tax dollars in a massive, misspent, misfortunate contest of penis size as budget cap.
you seem to be talking about the generally held
us freedom-loving people have had it high on the hog with the centralisation of power under a liberal government (except for gun rights). now that this centralised power is under conservative control we're shocked (shocked!) when the interpretation changes to our disliking. boo fscking hoo.
if we want a lasting right to fair use, to privacy, or whatever, we had better get it
if we don't want a powerful central government dictating law to us from their corporate puppeteers, then massive decentralisation of that power or, at least, less corrupt influences on that power, are needed. seriously, is there a more sure recipe for corruption than to put as much power in as few hands as possible? guess what, the Constitution never outlined plans to vest this much power in Washington, DC, but a rampant-running series of
MORTAR COMBAT!
Intro to HD PVRs
Broadcast flag info and list of HDTV cards
And BTW, the Elgato eyetv 500 is the answer to your question.
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
...all of the Broadcast Flag plans were in motion up long before Bush became president, during Clinton's presidency. Clinton appointed Michael Powell to the FCC [when he became Chairman, he didn't get any more votes], Clinton signed the DMCA into law, and Fritz Hollings (D) (along with four other Democratic senators) is the sponsor of the CBDTPA (née SSSCA or "DMCA 2").
I'm not saying the parent is speaking to this specifically, but this is just a point of information for others who will no doubt ignorantly vomit out the opposite in this thread.
Here's a concept:
1. We work hard on establishing a world wide WiFi network that isn't supplied or owned by ISPs, but is a collective non-profit organization.
2. Set up multiple membership levels with different requirements:
a. Standard users (just a regular WiFi access point to "catch the signal")
b. Operators (a bridging WiFi set up that connects several neighborhoods together)
c. Watchtower men (long range WiFi setups that can spam 20-50 miles to connect the Operators together)
d. Publishers (Centralized content hosting for free media perhaps in partnership with Wikimedia and the like)
3. Use this network to broadcast live and on/demand programming that is supplied and produced by any members
Ideally, this should really be multiple assocaited projects. The primary one being the non-profit that organizes the members of this wireless network. The other projects would be focused on creating content publishing software that would make it easy for anyone to publish video and audio, as well as education on creating media.
Barring any of that, a similar kind of network would probably grow tremendously if "Joe Average" learned that he could download the latest episodes of his favorite show using a WiFi peer-to-peer network...
So which is it going to be corporate America? Do you turn every citizen into a criminal, or do we find alternatives to your crap?
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I keep hearing people say as long as you're able to see/hear/smell it you're able to record it!
Last night my girfriend made the most wonderfull smelling muffins so I decided to record the smell using my camcorder. When I tried to replay the smell all I could smell was a dusty TV. Do you think the FCC has allready placed a broadcast flag for smells in camcorders?!!
A number of groups like the EFF, American Library Association, etc. are all challenging the broadcast flag in court. With a bit of luck it's implementation will be delayed or even stopped.
hi.
/OF
The simplest solution is to stop watching television. I got bored of television some 10 years ago. I took it up again last autumn but lost interest.
I guess this is not feasible for everyone.
Next thing is the observation that somewhere there is a DA converter where the input side is digital and the output side is analogue. And as long as there isn't any unbreakable decryption technique buried inside the DA converter the solution is simply to read the input side of the DA converter.
This is also the same reason that copy protection will never work. Somewhere the digital data has to be converted to analogue so all you have to do is to nick the data right there.
I guess this text will render it impossible for me to get a visa to the USA...
FWIW
The broadcast flag is designed to control content due to the success of TV shows on DVD sales. Also factor in the nice high resolution broadcast quality versions you could be saving/recording instead of buying on HD DVD... :) They just dont want you to record what you've already paid for. And yes sitting through commercials during a tv show is paying for a tv show. Afterall, they dont get advertising money for tv shows if they didnt have our ratings numbers. Hey according to the FCC, Them's is our airwaves! ;) HAHAHAHAHA. As if fucking over the entire public wasnt enough for the FCC, spitting that bullshit back in our faces should have resulted in riots ;)
:)
I think the real shame is that as a result of this broadcast flag, Hollywood will simply fuel an entire underground HD-TV show swaping network on the internet.
There will be 10x the amount of traded HD-TV shows being swapped online. There will be a huge demand for those who can provide recorded versions of your favorite tv show.
Dont these companies realize that the more they squeeze the people, the more willing the people are to fuck them back?
We're a country of rebelling bastards, its what we do best
So let the corperations continue to own and control our government. It's nothing new. We've already lost that war years ago.
Hollywood, say hello to the larger than ever, more elite than ever, more unstoppable than ever, and more right than ever... underground HD-TV show scene that you have created. Way to learn from the past, you fucking morons (hollywood).
pcHDTV 3000 from here
Air2PC from here or here
2. When you're ready, build a computer for MythTV. Use this guide, look here for HDTV tips, and ask questions on this mailing list. You can also search for answers on the mailing list archive.
3. You say that Myth isn't all you want. I think you're wrong. Here's what it can do:
It can record analog content from cable, satellite, and over-the-air broadcasts.
It can record digital content from over-the-air broadcasts, including HDTV.
It can record unencrypted digital content over firewire from some digital cable boxes.
Using free tools that come with MythTV, you can cut commercials and export any recording from MythTV to a number of different formats, including Divx, Xvid, VCD, SVCD, and DVD.
4. Here's what it can't do:
Myth can't record encrypted digital content from digital cable or digital satellite. Keep in mind that no PC-based solution can do this. The only possible ways to do record content from these sources in digital format are to use a black-box solution (usually) provided by the cable or satellite company or to put on your black hacker hat and crack the encryption. If you choose the former, odds are slim and none that you will be able to export the recordings.
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
The problem is that scumbags keep retroactively increasing the length of protection, and that is cheating
Why is it cheating? Because the people that BUY your IP do so at a set price with the assumption that after they wait x # of years the stuff they bought today will be theres to do with what they want. That is one of the decisions they made when they bought it.
Example: Lets say that in 1968 I purchased one of the original film reals of star trek, for say $5,000. I get to watch it myself, but I can't charge cash to others to see it... YET. For just myself, it would only be worth $4,500. But I know that in 20 years, it will be a rare commodity and I will be free to charge people to see the film. My $5,000 is an INVESTMENT.
now 10 years later, some scumbag lier has convinced congress to change it from 20 years to 50 years. I just lost my investment.
The real problem is HOW MUCH DO WE WANT TO PAY INVENTORS/CREATORS for their work.
And while they are certainly entilted to a fair price, we - as the PURCHASERS of that work are entitled to negotiate a fair price - and that price includes a limit on how long you hold the rights to it. May be it should be shorter, maybe it should be longer, but once our society sets a reasonable time limit and you "accept that condition" and create the IP, there is NO POSSIBLE, FAIR REASON to change it. That is just thievery by cheating, greedy scumbags. It is no better than if Ford suddenly decides to extend the 5 year rental agreement with an option to buy after 5 years to a 10 years rental agreement, after you already signed the papers.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Or, sit on your ass and suck it up...
As a Libertarian, my vote never gets anyone elected, even in local elections. So I am used to that. I have a comfortable chair.
This country used to be known as a country of individualists and, yes, anarchists to an extent. 'Tis no longer true of course, but I stand by our proud tradition of thumbing our noses at our government, poking fun at our ratlike leaders and ignoring laws and any other rules that I don't agree with. This is what makes me an American.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
"IP should not go into the public domain untill the copyright holders chose for it to or the applicable law forces it to."
That's a circular argument. You're saying that the law should exist because it's the law.
If you don't want "your IP" to be public, then keep it tucked away in a corner of your mind. Take it to the grave if you want. If you want to put "your IP" into the marketplace, the public is willing to protect your work within reasonable limits.
The problem in recent years is that deciding what's reasonable is being left up to people who are clearly biased.
A monkey has the right to copy what he sees other monkeys doing. Shouldn't humans have equivalent rights?
Your numbers sound about right. But you are forgetting something...
100% of the people who pay for cable are the ones who pay for cable! This might sound odd, but let me explain. The broadcast flag does not HAVE to be enabled at the source. The broadcasters can turn it on and off. If HBO started using the broadcast flag, they might change their minds if 10% of the people both wrote letters AND canceled their service. Men, you can grab by the balls. Companies, you grab by the wallet. The problem is that consumers TOLERATE this stuff. If ABC doesn't let you TIVO, then don't watch. Networks live and die by Nielson ratings.
I dumped all cable and broadcast TV over a year ago. I get my movies from Blockbuster, and I get my news from news.yahoo.com. I am happy.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
What right do you have to claim it as "your" culture? Did you create it?
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Yeah, it's really awful that people can continue to benifit from thier creations for so long.
Wow, Walt Disney is still alive? What great news!
hell, if logic isn't enough for you the damn thing is enumerated in the constitution itself:
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;
You're missing the point: It isn't about which person gets elected. Whichever one wins, s/he owes too many favors to the companies that paid for the campaign (likely giving money to both sides). Money doesn't buy elections; it buys elected officials.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
These days, it doesn't even matter if the issues are obscure or not; members of Congress don't get elected based on the issues at all. They get elected if they happen to live in a district that their party managed to gerrymander well enough to guarantee them a seat. The number of competitive congressional districts is just depressing. In most of the districts around here, only one party even bothers to run a candidate at all. Do you think my Democratic representative or the Republican in the next district over cares about what his constituents think, when he was elected with 99% of the vote? Especially when they can make the convincing argument in the primaries that replacing them with another member of the same party will just cut down on the amount of federal spending in the district because the new guy won't have seniority?
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
Most Disney movies are based on old legends, fairy tales, and historical events. Those are pieces of my culture as much as they are Disney's. Content producers have the constitutional right to a limited protection of their works, after which they are expected to revert to the public domain.
If you mistakenly believe otherwise, then I hope you demand that the publisher of your "collected works of William Shakespeare" track down his rightful, legal heir and fork over the appropriate royalties. Or that Disney pays Hans Christian Andersen's family for "The Little Mermaid". Or that Mel Gibson found someone to pay for the rights to Jesus's life story. Otherwise, you're a corporatist hypocrite who doesn't really understand the "intellectual property" rights you seem to be in love with.
Dang, writing that made me feel dirty. I'm a pretty staunch conservative, but this idea that recent works based on old public domain offerings have some natural right to be privatized for the rest of eternity is just plain bizarre.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Indeed: neither the constitution, nor the copyright laws require copyright owners to make access to copyrighted works "easy." However, from a technical standpoint it only takes one person to slog through the hard work of figuring out how to access a protected work and then write document describing the method to everyone else.
The constitutional issue present is whether the government can impose prior restraint on that speech (which is exactly what the DMCA does), and whether computer software is, for the purposes of the 1st ammendment, protected speech. The US Supreme Court has yet to rule, however at least on the 2nd half of the argument, the 9th circuit had ruled that computer software was speech in the first ammendment sense. The 9th circuit was set to re-hear the question en banc when that case (this one was about export regulations on encryption software) was made moot.
In short, no, you do not have the right to insist that copyrighted works be made "easy" for you to use. But I believe that the copyright holders do not have the right to prevent anyone from documenting the steps necessary to access their works. And if I am right, then any copy restriction regime is nothing more than a waste of everyone's time.
(IANAL, of course, but I play one in my mind)
The problem is that powerful copyright holders have extended the "applicable laws" more than once, retroactively. The problem is that "applicable laws" have ceased to protect the public from IP hoarding.
What right do you have to claim it as "your" culture?
The right to sing a combination of notes, or to write a combination of words, is inherent. The people chose to give that right up in the form of a temporary monopoly called copyright, in exchange for more and better creativity. Specifically, copyright laws enabled a professional creative class that doesn't require private sponsorship, which is a very good thing so far, but the people did not sign away the right to sing those notes or write similar words forever.
One thing you need to understand is that copyright also prohibits anybody else from independently coming up with that series of notes later. That "anybody else" might in fact have released the song into "our culture" for free, but we've chosen to lock that part of "our culture" up temporarily to encourage the first comer.
[...] your attitude smells of slavery. ou want to force the IP creators to give away thier creations so that you do not have to expend any effort in acquiring it your self.
First of all, you need to apologize to slaves for trivializing their plight. If copyright was not protecting your livelihood, you can switch to another job that you can do. Slaves have no such choice, so don't even begin to compare software engineers or musicians without copyright to slavery. (No, it doesn't even "smell" of it.)
Secondly, I see no such sentiment in the post you are responding to. The complaint seems specifically directed at the "ones with complete contempt for the notion of the public domain, who have repeatedly bought extensions to the duration of copyright". I think we're talking about people who want to retroactively extend copyright, which is in its moral essence refusing to uphold their end of the deal.
Finally, speaking specifically to the software engineer, the public will derive zero benefit from your software after a certain time period (depending on the nature of your work, of course, but particularly if the sources are closed). Thus, it's not in the public's interest to protect your work for that long. We'd like it to be somewhat useful, for some time, in the public domain, in exchange for that protection. A balance needs to be struck so you will be encouraged to create, but it's not fair to expect to profit for as long as your creation is useful.
No, at least in this case, it's not the device manufacturers' fault. They have no legal choice but to comply with this FCC regulation. If you want to boycott the responsible parties, then boycott Hollywood film studios.
Share and Enjoy: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I just use a Dazzle Hollywood DV bridge. I appears to my machine as a DV camcorder. It takes a video input signal and converts it to raw DV. I can do with the result what I wish. I generally use it for recording stuff from my DirecTiVo and burning DVDs from the DV. $DEITY bless iMovie, iDVD and my PowerBook.
I bought it originally to keep using my 8mm video camera instead of buying an $800 (at the time) DV camcorder. I've found tons of other uses for the thing now.
The Master (Angelo Rossitto) in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, "Not shit, energy!"
"The CTEA [Copyright Term Extension Act]extended the term of protection by 20 years for works copyrighted after January 1, 1923. Works copyrighted by individuals since 1978 got "life plus 70" rather than the existing "life plus 50". Works made by or for corporations (referred to as "works made for hire") got 95 years. Works copyrighted before 1978 were shielded for 95 years, regardless of how they were produced."
And thus, the reason why I cannot sell my bootleg Mickey shirts for another few decades. :)
--Teechur007
This is the same industry who's copy protection for CD audio data over digital is to have two bits set. Turn those bits off and you can copy all you want over TOSLINK.
This is the same industry who let the CSS decryption code leak out.
This is essentialy the same industry who tries to copy protect XBOX and PS2 games, only to have $10 chips start showing up a week after the machines come out, or, better yet, loading a save game file that creates a FTP server you can log in to by way of a buffer overflow in a font package.
I don't think we have anything to worry about here, folks.
Let them make their piddly little broadcast flag. Give it a week and you will see a story here on Slashdot that says, "HD Broadcast Flag stripped from content with 2 lines of Pearl."
Obviously you don;t see the big pictue, allow me to explain why this quote came up.
The parent mentioned that (and I paraphrase) as long as the rest of the country sat around snd watched (because it had nothing to do with them...yet) nothing would change, this quote says much more than its obvious meaning, you do more to trivialize it by narrowing its application than I did by sharing it. Also do you think the DVD thing is the only thing this broadcast flag can handle? It can have applications, such as disabling the 'manual skip commercial' features of future tivo-like systems, how about a flag that won;t allow you to change the channel when a certain commercial comes on, (ok this might be exxageration, but it makes a point), also the phrase shows how thinking 'well this is only happening in the USA, so fuck the yanks', when in reality, it will proably be adopted (perhaps by financial force) by other countries as well.
The words of the phrase itself do not apply, but the meaning behind it applies very much so.
I detest when such great quotes are marginalized.
Someone asked me the difference between ignorance and apathy, I told them I don't know and I don't care.
The issue is that if a representative is going to vote on a hundred different issues, people are going to vote based on whatever is most important to them. No matter how well you research the issue, if you are going to vote for a candidate, are you going to vote based on their position on health care, or their position on the FCC flag?
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
>One thing you need to understand is that
>copyright also prohibits anybody else from
>independently coming up with that series of
>notes later.
Ehh, this might be something that is different in US copyright laws, but if you can show that you came up with it independantly it is NOT a copyright infringement. The hard part is showing that though. But if you actually do create something independantly you would not infringne. As I said, not sure if it is the same way in US copyright laws though.