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Analog Hole Legislation Formally Introduced
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica is covering a recent bit of legislation introduced to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee this past week. The laws would seek to close the 'Analog Hole' that serves as a sort of last-ditch pirating mechanism when corporate DRM goes all crazy and tramples on your fair-use rights: 'Calling the ability to convert analog video content to a digital format a significant technical weakness in content protection, H.R. 4569 would require all consumer electronics video devices manufactured more than 12 months after the DTCSA is passed to be able to detect and obey a rights signaling system that would be used to limit how content is viewed and used. That rights signaling system would consist of two DRM technologies, Video Encoded Invisible Light (VEIL) and Content Generation Management System--Analog (CGMS-A), which would be embedded in broadcasts and other analog video content.'" We've previously covered this bill.
Calling the ability to convert analog video content to a digital format a "significant technical weakness in content protection,"
I'm keen to see how these technically-inclined *ahem* folks intend to remove the digital-analog conversion: to the very best of my knowledge our eyes and ears are analog devices.
H.R. 4569 would require all consumer electronics video devices manufactured more than 12 months after the DTCSA is passed to be able to detect and obey a "rights signaling system" that would be used to limit how content is viewed and used.
I foresee a frenzy of electronics sales around ($DATE + 11_months).
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
I predict a sudden upsurge in the sales of old video hardware on ebay.
So, given a pile of cash - how does this stop the Appropriately-Motivated-Bad-Guy(tm) from building his own damn equipment?
meh
This isn't bad because it limits freedom or any such nonsense. That's a lot of hot air blown by zealots with lots more free time than brain cells.
This is bad legislation because it attempts to force certain types of technology into existence. While a government program designed to discourage people from engaging in media piracy would be a good thing, mandating that all devices have this built in is simply a way to skirt the issue while appearing to be tackling the problem.
Such a law does not stop what it is intended to stop. Pirates will still be able to break the encryption, replicate the media, and resell it on the open street in lands far away from where American law can reach. This law is useless anywhere other than America.
What you get, instead of stopping piracy, is a mandated standard form of copy encryption and DRM that may or may not be adequate for everyone's needs. Instead of letting the market figure out what forms of DRM will be used, the government decides that it's items A, B, and C that need to be addressed. Nevermind that in the future item B may no longer be useful and item D is not provided for at all.
It's unfortunate that the respectable John Conyers (D) is drafting this bill. I would have expected more from the gentleman.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Just a definition, from the American Heritage Dictionary:
Fascism is a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.
For all you Bush-haters, this is not a rant about Bush, because he has zero power to pass laws. This is about members of both major parties in Congress, who regularly put aside their differences to expand the state-granted power of privileged businesses at the direct expense of our rights. This is fascism, by definition, yet we keep saying, "Thank you sir; may I have another?"
The problem is that politicians need pander to voters only on two or three issues, and then are free to do whatever is most profitable to them on all other issues. You might even be able to make the argument that the "major" issues we hear Congress critters rant about (the war, social security, the war, taxes, the war) are simply a smokescreen for the corruption, because it keeps our rights off most peoples' radars.
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... Does that mean that if you have a piece of hardware that was created before the new legislation you don't have anything to worry about?
Xserv
"I love lamp."
Yet another piece of legislation that will do nothing to stop the real pirates! Indeed, as *AA imposes more and more restrictions, inconveniences, and expense upon consumers, they will make the cheaper and relatively hassle free offerings of pirates even more compelling. It's been argued before, but it seems all too clear that the most effective way to combat piracy is to offer a better product at a reasonable price. But I guess some people just have to learn the hard way.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
This will stop people who actually want their fair use rights from making their own copies, but will do nothing to stop the people selling pirate copies on the street or the release groups putting the content on the net. I doubt there will be even a single day where releases are stopped because of this.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
So it applies to consumer electronics.
Not kits? How about components? Hardware hackers will be making money on the side selling stuff. Or maybe the Chinese will just make it and sell it.
Also, I remember how easy it was to mod a scanner in '93 to make it pick up cellphone signals -- just remove a single SMT resistor. This was the work of minutes. And voila -- full band reception.
So easily modded consumer goods (whatever that is) will be banned too.
This looks to be tough to enforce.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
Keep on making shitty movies and music that suck ass, and you'll kill all motivation to illegally copy them. This is the real solution, and the MP/RI-AA is a lot closer to it than they realize.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Far too few people will ever even hear about this because they're being constantly flooded with news about the war(s), upcoming elections, etc.
.... bliss?
What? Most people never even get around to watching this kind of programming. They're too busy watching some guy getting arrested for a shooting or a robbery... on the national news station.
The kind of programming you're talking about is becoming increasingly rare, and if this legislation and more like it gets passed, then it looks like you won't be able to record this stuff and watch it later. Ignorence is
May the Maths Be with you!
Someone will try to apply this to the internet to regulate what you read.
the ascreen you read is an analog hole for information, y'know.
I am trying to be sarcastic, but I can see how the trend line is going.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Not so much because these systems can be broken, but because it's yet another way to criminalise what you have the right for to do today. This combined with illegal evesdropping, data retention laws and other BS makes for the perfect toolset to turn each and every one of us into criminals.
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
From my point of view it is the principal that is the problem, not the implementation. Yes, the technical restrictions will be broken, but the fact that large corportations are able to purchase legislation that goes against what the (previously) law abiding public want as well as those who choose to break existing laws is extremely worrying. Copyright infringement is illegal, why introduce the DMCA's non-circumvention clause? If you're circumventing DRM in order to infringe copyright, there's a law to stop you already. If you're circumventing DRM for 'fair use' reasons then the law should be on your side. Same goes for the blank media tax that several countries now have - assume you're a criminal, charge you the money for a crime you may or may not commit. Hell, even the length of copyright is only appropriate to big business - most other professions don't continue paying for almost a century after your death, yet copyrights last that long even against the wishes of the original content creators (Happy Birthday, for a start).
Such a law does not stop what it is intended to stop. Pirates will still be able to break the encryption, replicate the media, and resell it on the open street in lands far away from where American law can reach. This law is useless anywhere other than America.
.i.e. share. These restrictions, along with big warnings along the lines of "You cannot record this program", "you do not have permission...." "It is an offense..." etc, etc, all reinforce the idea in his head that a video or sound recording is not his/hers. It is still someone elses, despite copyright law and any monies he/she may have paid for the product.
This law is in no way designed to go after the big guys. It's all about the small fish and keeping them in check.
Essentially the TV and Movie industry is terriffied that what happened to the music industry will happen to them. I.e., people will stop viewing entertainment as a commodity. Or at the very least, people will realise that the prices they pay for it are unreasonable.
How does this law try to change that? Essentially it makes it more difficult for Joe Consumer to view his music, movies, films, tv shows, etc as something he can do what he likes with,
The movie industry is afraid of what's already happened. New technologies have made people realise that information is cheap, and even cheaper to duplicate. There is no justification for charging $20 per gigabyte when I can upload terrabytes for less than a dollar. And people have realised this. Even Joe sixpack cops it after a few days in front of his computer.
But, if you can legislate, you can slow this tide and perhaps even reverse it. It is possible. Rhetoric won't make people revolt. An example of this system failing, but having lasting effects, is alcohol prohibition in the 30's. An example of this system working well( for its proponents) is the illegalisation of marijuana.
May the Maths Be with you!
I did not fully comprehend, agree, or disagree with your post. I will comment on this section:
But if video content were commonly obtained online by most Americans, and with video content getting easier to make (edit video and sound with FREE software on your cheap computer), that means that radical political views can be easily disseminated to most America.
The ability for people in the US to communicate with other people in the US has been relatively cheap for many decades. Maybe not video but other acceptable and common forms are there. The flow of these radical ideas you speak of obviously did has not happened to a level you feel is required for a change. The introduction of homebrew video is not going to cause a sudden change and the desire for finding alternate information sources from the general population and certainly has no bearing on the copy protection used by commercial media providers.
This won't stop the professional pirates, who have ALWAYS been able to break any sort of crypto and produce clean DIGITAL copies, and who will ALWAYS be able to do so.
It won't stop the kiddiez from pirating stuff onto Kazaa or through BitTorrent. Maybe at first they'll have to produce the files through literally aiming a video camera at their monitor and using a stereo microphone for sound... but I seriously doubt it.
This bill won't do a goddamned thing. It's a waste of our lawmakers' time and energy.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Star Wreck: In The Perkinning.
The music industry has had this problem for five or six years now - artists no longer need them, either for recording or distribution, since the price of recording is the price of a computer+whatever musical equipment they already need to play music.
P2P and internet radio give these artists a chance for the world to hear them, which is why the established labels (RIAA) have effectively outlawed both methods of distribution. The labels still control radio and empty-v.
Now with that hilarious Star Treck/Babylon IV spoof, the movie studios have the same problem. Corporations hate competetion and especially hate being beaten by "we, the people," and they hate nothing more than "power to the people."
It's bad enough that American corporations can buy US legislation, but the fact that foreigners like Sony and Universal can as well is truly disgusting.
Will it take an armed revolution to get our country back from these greedy foreigners who control our government?
-mcgrew (mcgrew.info/blog)
MRC="goodwill". Merry xmas, corporate whores.
The only real solution is to overthrow the capitalist giants whose sole purpose is to exploit "consumers" to make money.
But at the moment I'll settle for no DRM.
Very interesting. Nice usage of buzzwords like death knell and cryofan, whatever that is.
TOP DOWN COMMUNICATIONS? Bravo!
I'm looking forward for your online video, whereby thy Words will be spouted onto the billions. But why wait, why not just make a video with sub $1000-equipment now and offer it as a download on a website?
Oh wait.. Troll. Yes. To delightful horrors of children everywhere, A new kindred has been born.
+5 FUNNY people!!
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
According to Reps. Sensenbrenner and Conyers, the legislation is absolutely necessary because of the dire threat PCs and the Internet pose to the content-creation industry's very livelihood. Apparently, it's not nimble enough to keep up with advances in technology.
Who cares whether an obsolete industrial business model can keep up? When cars came along, laws occasionally were enacted requiring a flag person to walk in front of them so as not to scare horses. Didn't last long. Now film and plastic are fighting for their lives. Their best "argument" from the customer's perspective is that everything will look amateurish if we put big content out of business. Please. Like Participant Productions is amateurish. Even amateurish-looking Blair Witch proved the value of story and cultural savvy. As Steve Jobs' old dream of everyone being able to make a film or music album and share it instantly with the world is realized, there will be way more great stories, song and art out there than there are today. Filtering mechanisms (review blogs and the like) are already getting great exposure for the good stuff. I even made a decent living for five years creating and selling non-copy-protected original art directly to fans online. People are making money, some of them quite a lot of money. Especially the "content industry," but they're afraid their long run of protected profit is over. So they try to keep the rest of us down, and end up looking more backward than those who wanted flags to warn the horsies.
Psst, people can put and get video and other media online, RIGHT NOW! Why wait for the current media giants to take over the new venue by hook, crook, and legislation?
are you on crack? Europe can pay for Universal Healthcare for two reasons
1) Socialist levels of taxation
2) Not having a giant military to support
Europe spends their money healing citizens and the US spends money blowing shit up. Personally i would rather have free market healthcare and spend government money blowing shit up but i'm anti-social like that
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Last time this bill came up I said this, and I'll say it again.
I don't think the industry or anyone expects it to pass. I think they expect it to fail, and then they'll get a lesser, though still not acceptable, bill passed that does what the industry really wants.
Because let's be honest, all you're going to do with this bill is piss people off. You want to get people up in arms? Get between them and their TV. See how long you live.
Why do you think the digital TV transition, which was supposed to occur in just over a year, has now been pushed to 2009? The people in Washington don't want people to be able to point to them and say "THEY KILLED TV!"
Of course they want to keep the piracy at bay, however this doesn't hurt the pirates... they have the ability to crack, hack, and bypass to achieve their means. This simply hurts the fair use by non-techno-geeks.
Zanthor
Can't consumers make analogue to digital transfers pretty easily?
Complicated, silicon solutions aside, my father-in-law, who doesn't know how to send email, figured out how to digitize his old 8mm films on his own - point a digicam at the screen.
Last time I checked, I didn't have an organic usb port in the back of my head, so at some point the digital signals have to be converted to light and sound, and neither of them can be DRMd without making the whole system useless, because unless they are going to make home studios and digital cameras illegal they can't stop us from recording it.
When will they learn that DRM is a deterant not a solution? Not least of all, its an incentive to others, who break it 'because they can'.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
I see the major sponsor is once again, Rep. Francis James Sensenbrenner, Jr. What is with people in Wisconsin that vote for this authoritarian leaning man ?
He is also pushing legislation again, the third time to force states to sign this Driver License Agreement through HR4437 which requires states to interlink motor vehicle databases not only within the US but with Canada & Mexico.
This arrogant man needs to be fired from his job !
We shouldn't be surprised at the way things are heading. In the analog days, natural limits were imposed on both corporations and customers, which now thanks for technology advancements are gone (i.e. perfect digital copy).
Digital Technology is just a world without set rules waiting for someone to set them. Corporations can program their way to dictatorship, but we can also program our way to freedom.
At the end, I think people will win since they are too many enthusiasts which will be willing to provide DRM free content as an opposition to the entertainment industry. In a global world, not only bad news come fast.
If this gets passed, nobody outside the USA will want to buy American made hardware.
In terms of TVs and other consumer hardware, this might not hurt too much - it's all made by the Japanese and Koreans anyway. However, if this nonsense gets integrated into computer hardware, it would spell the end of any export sales for such equipment.
And as other posters have commented - it won't stop the dedicated.
This is fascism, by definition, yet we keep saying, "Thank you sir; may I have another?"
I agree with the latter, but not the former. As the quoted definition says, fascism has a "dictator" which is someone who convinces up to many millions of people that he (or never to date that I know of, a she) rules almost exclusively, and usually is pretty nasty to people of their country and others as well. Mentioning Hitler automatically lowers ones perceived knowledge and respect based on common knowledge, but he is the most well known, and probably the nastiest of all fascists.
Bush, although I don't believe he is a man in power says silly stuff.
Yesteday, he said "On the political side, we know that free societies are peaceful societies, so we're helping the Iraqis build a free society with inclusive democratic institutions that will protect the interests of all Iraqis." I thought of immediately moving to Iraq in order to have freedom and to live in a peaceful society, but my intuition and all of the other junk that I have heard from other people makes me believe that Iraq is not very free or peaceful.
I've got other things to do now while I get moderated between flamebate, insightful, and troll.
You know, maybe it's the other way around. When everything will be locked in and properly shut down, people will look with wonders at how I downloaded Harvey Danger's latest CD right off of the net and uploaded it on my MP3 player.
Then they'll realise there is an alternative to music produced by the Majors and maybe they will start listening to independent music. Just because that's the only music they can listen to on all their devices...
But that's a heck of a lot of maybes...
Write boring code, not shiny code!
A story, care of a very smart machinist: At my grandmother's funeral earlier this year in November, I had the opportunity to meet one of my father's schoolmates who stayed in his hometown. He's 60 now, and to me, he seemed plenty sharp. He was talking to my dad and another one of my dad's friends about the machining trade, and how they're having problems getting help, because American kids aren't getting into machining. The conversation shifted to the foundries he gets his castings from. He explained that when he started getting castings from Chinese foundries a few decades ago, they sucked. Shitty casts, weak alloys, etc. But sure enough, their quality eventually equalled home grown American casts for a fraction of the cost. Guess who went out of work? Same went for his machinist tools. They went from bring short lived, cast pieces of shit to forged, superior tools.
The moral or the story? The Chinese aren't stupid, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a goddamn fool to believe they will not surpass us if we continue down the road where no one can earn a living unless their job is management of some kind. Exporting all labor will turn us back into a country of farmers, once places such as India and China figure out they no longer need us to do their own thing. I almost don't want to have children simply because if I can't escape the United States, I wouldn't want to raise a child into the situation that we both know is about to happen.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
... as long as one proviso is added. In addition to requiring all consumer devices to honor the copyright protection system, the law must also require all consumer devices to honor all of the exceptions codified in current copyright law. In particular, devices need to detect and permit Fair Use as well as reproduction of content whose term of copyright protection has expired. The things that copyright law allows are just as important as the things it restricts, so if you're going to require device manufacturers to build devices that enforce the law, they need to enforce *all* of the law, not just most of it.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I'm really curious, what hardware is made in america these days?
"US House Judiciary Committee"
OK, so the people that could and should be pursuing articles of impeachment against President Bush for his illegal domestic wiretaps are instead spending their time whoring themselves out to the MPAA?
Maybe they should look into enforcing existing laws every once in a while instead of writing new and needless laws.
I create a movie. I licence it under Creative Commons licensing. I want it to be free to the public.
Since the "analog hole" will now be closed, does this also mean that whatever I release be DRMed in some way to prevent analog copying?
I'm releasing my work that I own the copyright to in analog and digital form specifically to be copied, downloaded, recorded and shared. Does this make me, the copyright holder a criminal?
How long will it be before the creation of [enter type of digital content here] be specifically licenced?
- something to think about.
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
But if you don't buy the **AA's products, the **AA will claim that they are losing money due to "piracy". They will get a law passed that requires you to buy their products. Then, if you don't buy **AA products, you will be thrown in jail.
chown -R us ~you/base
Implant DRM filters in the inner ear of every child at birth. If sound is detected the user does not own the rights too, the filter will block the audio from reaching the brain, preventing the user from enjoying the fruits of his/her piracy.
:P
Any medical doctor caught removing or offering to remove said filters will have their medical license revoked and face a huge fine and/or imprisonment.
Should also develope a video DRM filter for implant along the optical nerve. Will solve all the piracy problems.
Hey, it may sound overboard, but if the creative geniuses hadn't slaved over making it, or without the hard working efforts of the ??IAA to deliver it to you, you couldn't enjoy it in the first place. This isn't an invasion of privacy, merely a step to protect the rights and to reward the efforts of those who own that creative work. Don't blame them for protecting themselves, blame humanity for its greed. You brought this on yourselves!!
* * * * *
My sympathy to the parents of anyone who thought the above was in any way serious
that entertainment will slip out from the big companies' hands. Suddenly people will start producing creative-commons TV shows, and broadcast them over the internet.
Plus, there is a tiny detail these companies have forgotten: They can't lobby other countries. Try passing a law that forbids analog recording in Venezuela, Argentina, Indonesia or Hong Kong (not to mention the great dragon).
What will happen when the average american finds himself at disadvantage with other countries?
If TV companies insist on closing the doors to their own viewers, suddenly they'll realize they only locked themselves out.
Smart move, really.
I sense a bit of Tivo-envy on the part of the **AAs. Heck, Tivo is the only way many people have even seen many of these shows. Tivo has been a promoter of shows, in a way not entirely dissimilar from the original incarnation of Napster did for CDs.
If I can't catch important individual shows in a series that I was duped into watching in the first place by carefully edited teasers, then I probably won't watch the show at all. More time for me. I feel my brain rot healing already.
Soon the **AAs will discover that analog holes exist in books, music instruments, and live stages. Hmmm... can't have entertainment that isn't copy-protected. Maybe movie and music reviews will have to be controlled, too... they're contributing to the decline of DVD and CD sales.
Calling the ability to convert analog video content to a digital format a "significant technical weakness in content protection,"
In other news, calling "the ability to choose not to watch crappy movies" a "signifficant weakness in our buisness model", the **AA are calling for critical thinking to be outlawed.
How did they find time to put this into committee and not time to file orders of impeachment for our government spying on its citizens without court supervision.
This is gonna be one hell of a New Year.