[opendtv] Re: Someone else's ramblings on copy protection

  • From: John Willkie <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:59:14 -0400 (EDT)

could it be that fools travel in packs?  I wonder how many blogs you had to 
scan to find a second foolish opinion.

Also, I said about a week ago that EFF traveled along with the "social 
contract."  They have little else, although apparently they also engage in 
conspiracy fantasies from time to time.

Do you think (I know EFF cares not about it) that there might be an IPR issue, 
like, say the patents that Echostar has been adjudged to infringe in it's 
initial PVR system, that prevents people from providing this capability?  Tivo 
has some, Replay Networks others, and I'm sure there are plenty of others that 
are needed.

Why don't you indemnify these CE companies?  Then, you can see what they 
deliver without a worry about the consequences of being liable for infringement 
of IPR.

The limb was never able to bear your weight.  But, you of course, never make a 
mistake, and never have conceded a single error.  So, you double down ...

John Willkie

-----Original Message-----
>From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Jun 30, 2008 8:59 PM
>To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [opendtv] Someone else's ramblings on copy protection
>
>
>http://www.toad.com/gnu/whatswrong.html
>
>This John Gilmore blog, or e-mail, from back in 2001, updated for links in 
>2005, is a good read. He makes many points about about "what's wrong with ..." 
>These are his opinions, of course.
>
>The points I find most compelling are not those at all. Instead, they are 
>these two, specifically:
>
>"Pioneer New Media Technologies, who builds the recently announced recordable 
>DVD drive for Apple, says 'The major consumer applications for recordable DVD 
>will be home movie editing and storage and digital photo storage'. They 
>carefully don't say 'time-shifting TV programs, or recording streaming 
>Internet videos', because the manufacturers and the distribution companies are 
>in cahoots to make sure that that capability never reaches the market. Even 
>though it's 100% legal to do so, under the Supreme Court's Betamax decision."
>
>Looks like I'm not the only one who wonders about who the CE manufacturers are 
>most afraid of, eh?
>
>Then this:
>
>"What is wrong is when companies who make copy-protecting products don't 
>disclose the restrictions to the consumers. Like Apple's recent happy-happy 
>web pages on their new DVD-writing drive, announced this month 
>(http://www.apple.com/idvd/). It's full of glowing info about how you can 
>write DVDs based on your own DV movie recordings, etc. What it quietly 
>neglects to say is that you can't use it to copy or time-shift or record any 
>audio or video copyrighted by major companies. Even if you have the legal 
>right to do so, the technology will prevent you."
>
>[ ... ]
>
>"It isn't just Apple who is misleading the consumer; it's epidemic."
>
>Yup. He describes unnecessarily crippled products, whose limitations are not 
>disclosed. Wow, how unique. Although as far as DVDRs (or PVRs) go anyway, 
>perhaps things are not as bad now as they were when these devices were still 
>analog only. Maybe just temporarily, who knows.
>
>John Gilmore is a co-founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation.
>
>Bert
>
>-------------------------------------------
>http://www.eff.org/about/board
>
>John Gilmore
>
>Co-Founder, Board Member, entrepreneur; technologistgnu@xxxxxxx  John Gilmore 
>is an entrepreneur and civil libertarian. He was an early employee of Sun 
>Microsystems, early open source author, and co-created Cygnus Solutions, the 
>Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Cypherpunks, the DES Cracker, and the 
>Internet's "alt" newsgroups. He's spent 30 years doing programming, hardware 
>and software design, management, philosophy, philanthropy, and investment. 
>Along with being a board member of EFF, he is also on the Board of the Usenix 
>Association, CodeWeavers, and ReQuest. He's trying to get people to think more 
>about the society they are building. His advocacy on drug policy aims to 
>reduce the immense harm caused by current attempts to control the mental 
>states of free citizens. His advocacy on encryption policy aims to improve 
>public understanding of this fundamental technology for privacy and 
>accountability in open societies.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Watch “Cause Effect,” a show about real people making a real difference.  
>Learn more.
>http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/MTV/?source=text_watchcause 
> 
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