Fri, 17 Oct 2003
And now, some words from our sponsor
Shamelessly forwarded from an EFF mailing list:
Today, we're asking for your help with the Broadcast Flag. This is a
proposed technology mandate that would give Hollywood studios a veto
over the design of the output and recording technologies that get built
into DTV receivers -- which is by way of saying the stuff that we take
for granted on our general-purpose machines, like CD/DVD burners,
high-speed cabling standards like FireWire, and so on. This is an
unprecedented maneouvre: the Hollywood studios are saying that tech
companies should have to get the studios' permission before releasing
new tools to their customers. These are the studios that tried to ban
the VCR, that sued ReplayTV over commercial-skipping, that put Fritz
Hollings up to the CPDTPA bill, a proposal to make all technologists
get the entertainment industry's approval before producing new
equipment.
What's more, the Broadcast Flag demands that approved technologies will
have to be built to be "tamper-resistant." That means that we'll have a
law that will require an entire class of general-purpose technologies
to use only obfuscated, closed-source drivers. That's right, it bans
open source for tech that can be used in DTV applications.
We need lots of people to write into the FCC asking them to set this
proposal aside, and we want you to help. If you are willing and able,
we'd like you to post a call-to-action on your site. You can write your
own, or feel free to re-use this letter (please omit the leading
paragraph!) or the copy on the EFF's site:
action
center link
That link contains our "action center" item, which allows people to
send a fax to the commission with one click.
Seriously. This proposal doesn't directly affect me, because
I'm based in the UK. But if you live in the USA, this is a
particularly odious attempt by the entertainment industry to
grab complete control of your next generation of TV
broadcasting system and prevent you from watching it on
equipment uncertified by the MPAA, time-shifting to avoid ads,
viewing it on computer, recording programs, or ultimately
watching TV without pay-per-view. So get writing, now.
[ action
center link ]
[ Discuss
copyright-censorship ]
posted at: 21:26 | path: /misc | permanent link to this entry
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specials:
Is
SF About to Go Blind? -- Popular Science article by Greg
Mone
Unwirer -- an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction
Inside
the MIT Media Lab -- what it's like to spend a a day wandering around the Media Lab
"Nothing like this will be built again" -- inside a nuclear reactor complex
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Some webby stuff I'm reading:
[ Engadget ]
[ Gizmodo ]
[ The Memory Hole ]
[ Boing!Boing! ]
[ Futurismic ]
[ Walter Jon Williams ]
[ Making Light (TNH) ]
[ Crooked Timber ]
[ Junius (Chris Bertram) ]
[ Baghdad Burning (Riverbend) ]
[ Bruce Sterling ]
[ Ian McDonald ]
[ Amygdala (Gary Farber) ]
[ Cyborg Democracy ]
[ Body and Soul (Jeanne d'Arc) ]
[ Atrios ]
[ The Sideshow (Avedon Carol) ]
[ This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow) ]
[ Jesus's General ]
[ Mick Farren ]
[ Early days of a Better Nation (Ken MacLeod) ]
[ Respectful of Otters (Rivka) ]
[ Tangent Online ]
[ Grouse Today ]
[ Hacktivismo ]
[ Terra Nova ]
[ Whatever (John Scalzi) ]
[ GNXP ]
[ Justine Larbalestier ]
[ Yankee Fog ]
[ The Law west of Ealing Broadway ]
[ Cough the Lot ]
[ The
Yorkshire Ranter ]
[ Newshog ]
[ Kung Fu Monkey ]
[ S1ngularity ]
[ Pagan Prattle ]
[ Gwyneth Jones ]
[ Calpundit ]
[ Lenin's Tomb ]
[ Progressive Gold ]
[ Kathryn Cramer ]
[ Halfway down the Danube ]
[ Fistful of Euros ]
[ Orcinus ]
[ Shrillblog ]
[ Steve Gilliard ]
[ Frankenstein Journal (Chris Lawson) ]
[ The Panda's Thumb ]
[ Martin Wisse ]
[ Kuro5hin ]
[ Advogato ]
[ Talking Points Memo ]
[ The Register ]
[ Cryptome ]
[ Juan Cole: Informed comment ]
[ Global Guerillas (John Robb) ]
[ Shadow of the Hegemon (Demosthenes) ]
[ Simon Bisson's Journal ]
[ Max Sawicky's weblog ]
[ Guy Kewney's mobile campaign ]
[ Hitherby Dragons ]
[ Counterspin Central ]
[ MetaFilter ]
[ NTKnow ]
[ Encyclopaedia Astronautica ]
[ Fafblog ]
[ BBC News (Scotland) ]
[ Pravda ]
[ Meerkat open wire service ]
[ Warren Ellis ]
[ Brad DeLong ]
[ Hullabaloo (Digby) ]
[ Jeff Vail ]
[ The Whiskey Bar
(Billmon) ]
[ Groupthink Central (Yuval Rubinstein) ]
[ Unmedia (Aziz Poonawalla) ]
[ Rebecca's Pocket (Rebecca Blood) ]
Older stuff:
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
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June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
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January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
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March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
(I screwed the pooch in respect of the blosxom entry
datestamps on March 28th, 2002, so everything before then shows up as being
from the same time)
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