via Brian - Consensus at Lawyerpoint: Hollywood Wants to Plug the "Analog Hole"

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the "Content Protection Status Report" with the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, laying out its plan to remake the technology world to suit its own ends. The report calls for regulation of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), generic computing components found in scientific, medical and entertainment devices. Under its proposal, every ADC will be controlled by a "cop-chip" that will shut it down if it is asked to assist in converting copyrighted material -- your cellphone would refuse to transmit your voice if you wandered too close to the copyrighted music coming from your stereo.

The report shows that this ADC regulation is part of a larger agenda. The first piece of that agenda, a mandate that would give Hollywood a veto over digital television technology, is weeks away from coming to fruition. Hollywood also proposes a radical redesign of the Internet to assist in controlling the distribution of copyrighted works.

This three-part agenda -- controlling digital media devices, controlling analog converters, controlling the Internet -- is a frightening peek at Hollywood's vision of the future.

Please make sure you go and read the whole article. It makes chilling reading. My students, in particular, should be greatly concerned as this will directly impinge on their future professional careers. The consequences of these proposals being adopted are just too awful to contemplate. A wee thought experiment: imagine if the (equivalent) of these proposals had been in place fifty years ago. Do you think we would have had the innovation and consumer products we now currently enjoy? Would the Intentent have ever got out of the research labs?

To quote Brian - "Holy Shit!"