Category: Uncategorized
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Fritz's Hit List #2
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: the Amana Messenger refrigerator. This appliance, with its audio message feature, qualifies for regulation as a “digital media device” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA passes, any newly manufactured Amana Messenger refrigerators will have to incorporate government-approved copy restriction technology. Fight piracy – regulate kitchen appliances!
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Miller on DMCA and DVD Reviews
Ernest Miller at LawMeme explains why there is so little fair use in DVD reviews.
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Crackdown on Greek Gamers
According to a BBC story, Greek police have stepped up the pace of arrests in enforcing a new Greek law banning all computer games. Many Internet cafes have been shut down. [Link credit: disLEXia]
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New Feature: Fritz's Hit List
Today on Fritz’s Hit List: Big Mouth Billy Bass. That’s right, your favorite wall-hanging, singing, dancing, animatronic fish qualifies for regulation as a “digital media device” under the Hollings CBDTPA. If the CBDTPA passes, any new Billy Bass will have to incorporate government-approved copy restriction technology. Fight piracy – regulate singing fish novelties! ======= What…
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Tauzin Circulating Draft "Broadcast Flag" Bill
Rep. Billy Tauzin is circulating a draft of a bill that would restrict digital technology. One effect of the bill would be to mandate “broadcast flag” technology. The bill has not yet been introduced.
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Misleading Term of the Week: "Trusted System"
The term “trusted system” is often used in discussing Digital Rights/Restrictions Management (DRM). Somehow the “trusted” part is supposed to make us feel better about the technology. Yet often the things that make the system “trusted” are precisely the things we should worry about. The meaning of “trusted” has morphed at least twice over the…
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Lessig/DRM/End-To-End Debate: Resolved?
Larry Lessig and I had a brief blog-discussion last week about the meaning of the end-to-end principle(s), and how end-to-end applies to DRM. The discussion continued off-line, and we ended up in pretty close agreement. Here is my version of what we agree on: (1) End-to-end is not a single principle, but a cluster of…
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Ernest Miller on Lessig/DRM
Great new entry in the Lessig/DRM debate, from Ernest Miller at Lawmeme. This is starting to turn from a narrow debate about Lessig’s piece into a wider discussion of how to think about DRM and Palladium. I’m eager to see this wider discussion start.
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Low-Tech DRM
Today’s New York Times reports that Epic Records has taken a decidedly low-tech approach to DRM in pre-releasing two new albums to critics: … the CD’s [are] already inside Sony Walkman players that have been glued shut. Headphones are also glued into the players, to prevent connecting the Walkman to a recording device. Needless to…
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Network Centric DRM
Remember when I promised not to post anymore on Lessig’s DRM piece? I lied. I just have to respond to a comment from Lessig himself. He writes: … Felten is skeptical that copyprotection would be placed in the network. “From an engineer standpoint, that assumption looks wrong to me,” he says. But what if we…