Dewey Smolka wrote:
This is a matter of concern, but there's no reason to get excited, just yet.
...
If it were only directed at MythTV or other hobby products it would be
one thing, but do you really think that the (also powerful)
electronics and PC manufacturing lobbies are going to allow this
through without a fight? Are hardware makers going to let the music
and film studios to dictate how they design hardware?
I wouldn't count on the electronics and PC manufacturing lobbies to
fight for our rights:
- Microsoft -> Creators of Windows Vista, which implements
copyright protection far worse than the broadcast flag and makes it
impossible to create any engines to play video/audio content. Instead,
multimedia apps become "remote controls" that interact with a
Microsoft-provided multimedia player that exists below the OS. Also
successfully lobbied both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray to make VC-1 (formerly
VC-9, the DRM-encumbered Windows Media Video format that allows this
copyright protection) a mandatory format for players.
- Intel -> Proud developer/sponsor of HDCP and owner of Digital
Content Protection, LLC ( http://www.digital-cp.com/home ), an Intel
subsidiary that sells licenses for HDCP and plans to sue companies whose
products (players or media) cause compromises
- Hitachi Ltd., Intel Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEI),
Sony, and Toshiba -> Producers of the Five Company (5C) Digital
Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) specification, which was expected
to be the starting technologies used with the broadcast flag, *but* was
not designed specifically for use with the broadcast flag (so it
may--probably will--be used elsewhere even thought the broadcast flag
has been delayed).
- Trusted Computing Group (TCG) (
https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/home ) -> an alliance of
Microsoft, Intel, IBM, HP, and AMD which promotes a standard for
transferring control of your computer from you to the vendor (both
hardware and software vendors)...
- The list goes on and on (and on and on and on and on ...).
From a PC hardware standpoint, video is "the killer app" that will sell
the fastest/most-powerful new processors and new video cards (since we
can't decode 1920x1080 @ 30fps (60 fields/sec) video in software with
even the top-of-the-line general-purpose processors available today).
So, to get the content producers to agree help "put the PC in the living
room," the hardware vendors must quell their fears of rampant digital
piracy. The only way to do this is by taking freedoms away from the
user, something they're happy to do if it doesn't cost them market
share. If the entire market moves to a "freedom-constrained" computing
infrastructure, their selling a freedom-constrained product won't affect
their market share. So, they simply have to move the whole industry in
that direction and are accomplishing this through Vista (probably the
biggest piece of the puzzle), standards groups (5C, TCG, HD-DVD,
Blu-Ray), and "business to business" marketing. Basically, the public
outcry against the Pentium 3 serial number caused Intel to pause and set
up alliances with other companies (safety in numbers) and now they're
bringing the same threats to our freedom, but with industry
consensus--so as long as everyone goes along, the consumer has no options.
In short, these guys don't have our best interests at heart... The most
treacherous enemies are those we think of as friends.
Mike
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