 g0nepostalI Am The One Her Mom Warned Her About
join:2001-03-23
Concord, CA
 ·magicjack.com
 ·Astound Broadband
 ·DSL EXTREME
| This would spell death for the technology industry I interpreted the article to mean that only hardware or software that had been certified as having copy protection embedded in it would be legal to sell or own. If you follow that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, that would mean that the current market in hardware would be dissolved, from the multitude of suppliers that now provide computer hardware to the few that had the R&D and financial resources to come into compliance with any standard defined by the US Commerce Department.
As for the software side of things, as much as I hate to say this in the Wintel world Microsoft owns. The article indicates that Microsoft is not very happy with what this legislation intends, presumably because they've had enough experience with government intrusion to know that anything the government proposes will not be to Microsoft's benefit. Much like the anti-trust remedies Judge Jackson imposed on the company.
In any case, does anyone realistically think that the RIAA and the MPAA wouldn't have a hand in "helping" the Commerce Department determine what copy protection standard should be implemented in any future hardware or software for it to be certified? Ha! They'd be all over it, because it would give them both the ability to control distribution as well as monitor how what they peddle is distributed, something that currently cannot be done thanks to the advent of decentralized peer to peer. Valenti is simply trying to forestall the inevitable, which is the death of both the music and movie industries as they are currently structured.
Think also of what having to implement copy protection will do to the marketplace. Again, only those companies with the resources to do it will come into compliance, and those that cannot will simply go out of business. Less competition in hardware, and even more of a monopoly in software that what exists today. Is it the place of government to actually decrease the amount of competition in an industry, only to protect the profits of another? That alone is in open contrast to what the role of government has traditionally been: To encourage free enterprise - albeit with some regulation - to help foster creativity and innovation. Trying to force copy protection down everyone's throat will easily destroy both.
Undoubtedly someone will argue that copy protection is needed to help ensure that creators get paid. I don't argue that creators deserve to get paid for their work. But to try and force everyone to adhere to specific hardware and software just to protect a few industries' balance sheets is both dishonest and wrong. Is a creator going to get paid when they can only sell to the minority who will be authorized to buy their content?
Billy Tauzin and Fritz Hollings need to lose their seats. Jack Valenti needs to realize that all greed does is foster hostility toward industries that attempt to protect their monopolies by trying to enforce their will on the general citizenry.
Rockefeller and Gates learned their lessons the hard way. I guess the MPAA will have to as well.
g0nepostal
[text was edited by author 2002-01-20 00:31:35] |
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| said by g0nepostal:
Billy Tauzin and Fritz Hollings need to lose their seats. Jack Valenti needs to realize that all greed does is foster hostility toward industries that attempt to protect their monopolies by trying to enforce their will on the general citizenry.
Rockefeller and Gates learned their lessons the hard way. I guess the MPAA will have to as well.
TRUE DAT!!!
You can say that again... in a HUNDRED different languages, for ALL the world to understand! Somebody get this man an interpreter... 
[text was edited by author 2002-01-20 00:47:04] |
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pkust
join:2001-08-09
Houston, TX | reply to g0nepostal
Re: This would spell death for the technology indu This much is certain--if current trends continue, the computer industry is going to be on a collision course with the entertainment industry. I doubt either will perish, but I do believe both will emerge significantly altered.
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Cordially,
Peter Nayland Kust
pkust@tekmedia.com
TEKMedia Communications
www.tekmedia.com |
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 fewtch
join:2001-01-23
Renton, WA
| said by pkust:
This much is certain--if current trends continue, the computer industry is going to be on a collision course with the entertainment industry. I doubt either will perish, but I do believe both will emerge significantly altered.
The collision/collusion began some time ago. Can you say "AOL Time Warner?"
[text was edited by author 2002-01-20 19:16:56] |
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pkust
join:2001-08-09
Houston, TX | said by fewtch:
The collision/collusion began some time ago. Can you say "AOL Time Warner?"
What is different here is that the interests of the technology industry--putting new features and new capabilities into software and hardware to inspire continual upgrades of systems--are coming into direct conflict with the interests of the entertainment industry--which is to limit those same features and capabilities, at least where multimedia and digital content is concerned.
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Cordially,
Peter Nayland Kust
pkust@tekmedia.com
TEKMedia Communications
www.tekmedia.com |
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| reply to pkust
said by pkust:
This much is certain--if current trends continue, the computer industry is going to be on a collision course with the entertainment industry. I doubt either will perish, but I do believe both will emerge significantly altered.
They killed Digital Audio Tape in the past.
There is absolutely no guarantee that either industry will emerge victorious. If they don't get their act together, they could in fact fail.
Simple scenario: kids under 15 just simply never do business with companies that embrace these principles. As they come of age, they come up with their own method of entertaining one another, using an "underground" peering method that doesn't involve centralized sales through some big company. People continue to get entertained, but the entertainment monopolies find themselves cut out of all new content.
Take a look at the average radio station's playlist, and compare it with one from 15 years ago, to get another glimpse into how the industry fires bullets into its own toes. (They've managed to make money so far, but at the cost of their own future--kids don't listen to the radio as much anymore--demographics will slowly kill off the radio business.) |
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