http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000113.html
The people who tried to take away your VCR are at it again. Hollywood has always dreamed of a "well-mannered marketplace" where the only technologies that you can buy are those that do not disrupt its business. Acting through legislators who dance to Hollywood's tune, the movie studios are racing to lock away the flexible, general-purpose technology that has given us a century of unparalelled prosperity and innovation. --- Accordingly, the report calls for a regimen where "watermark detectors would be required in all devices that perform analog to digital conversions." The plan is to embed a "watermark" (a theoretical, invisible mark that can only be detected by special equipment and that can't be removed without damaging the media in which it was embedded) in all copyrighted works. Thereafter, every ADC would be accompanied by a "cop chip" that would sense this watermark's presence and disable certain features depending on the conditions. This is meant to work like so: You point your camcorder at a movie screen. The magical, theoretical watermark embedded in the film is picked up by the cop-chip, which disables the camcorder's ADC. Your camcorder records nothing but dead air. The mic, sensing a watermark in the film's soundtrack, also shuts itself down. --- http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000008.html So what's all this stuff about "consensus?" Why are technology companies telling Congress that they can't wait to implement all of these misbegotten "features?" Because it beats the alternative. Hollywood's got a big club here. They've been playing the lobbying game long and hard enough that ____Congress is willing to butcher the $600 billion tech industry to feed the $35 billion entertainment sector____ -- besides, movie people have better hair and throw better parties and don't correct your math when it comes time to split the check (movie people just pick up the check). Emphasis mine.
