Dewey Smolka wrote:
But to try to bring it back on topic -- the legality/illegality of
water pipes is quite irrelevant so long as glass, plumbing fixtures,
and pocket butane torches are legal. This comes back to the topic
because even if cature devices are illegal, the components used to
make them are not.
But, if the law succeeds, purchasing the components without a license
from Hollywood would be illegal. The A/D- and D/A-converters could only
be purchases by unlicensed parties if enclosed in a closed, proprietary
system designed to prevent compromise. Licensed parties can purchase
"unprotected" components but would be required--by law--to enclose them
some DRM- (or would that be ARM- :) enabled device.
...
As long as there are legitimate uses for audio/video capture devices
(and there are plenty), I don't think it's possible to ban the devices
because they could be used for illegal purposes. That doesn't mean
that our friends in Hollywood won't try, but I'm pretty sure it's not
going anywhere.
I agree that it's unlikely to get anywhere, but I'll be watching just in
case.
The thing to worry about, as I think someone else noted, is that this
ridiculous proposal can set the groundwork for a 'compromise' in the
future that makes the **AA look like they're giving something up.
Definitely true.
Either way, there's a joker in the deck we're forgetting about: In the
US there's tens of millions of people with hundreds of millions of
hours of home video on tape, and many of those people want to convert
those tapes to DVD. If they are prevented from doing that by law,
there will be a serious consumer backlash.
But they could still do that by buying licensed products from licensed
vendors. And, most consumers don't know the difference between Windows
Vista, the DRM-enabled, licensed to copy according to Hollywood's rules
OS, and Windows Vista, the thing that makes my computer work.
Mike
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