The puppets of the RIAA/MPAA are at it again as they try to push the Security
Systems Standard and Certification Act (SSSCA) with a new name: Consumer
Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). This new
act is 'To regulate interstate commerce in certain devices by providing
for private sector development of technological protection measures to be
implemented and enforced by Federal regulations to protect digital content and
promote broadband as well as the transition to digital television, and for
other purposes.' This one makes me even more sick as it will appeal to the
general public, who are clueless about this bill and will assume it is for the good
of everyone, thanks to its misleading name.
Previously known -- accurately -- as the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), the warm and fuzzy version is now called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). |
Sounds laudable, doesn't it? Promoting Consumers and such. What it actually
promotes is federal standards for digital rights management in all electronic
devices, while imposing criminal penalties for those who would dare defy it.
Here's the justification: "The lack of high quality digital content continues to
hinder consumer adoption of broadband Internet service and digital television
products," the bill asserts. So the reason why there's too little broadband
going around isn't the greed of the providers, but the lack of bandwidth-choking
content.
And to get that content onto the Internet, we need to satisfy the extravagant
security expectations of the owners. Once we do that, they'll make their
products available, and the public will flock to broadband like moths to a lamp
in hopes of watching movies on a 15-inch monitor and listening to the
soundtracks through quarter-inch speakers.
Surely this is the Holy Grail of home-entertainment.
But Hollings and Co don't stop there. They want copy controls embedded in VCRs
as well. Supposedly, time-shifting will still be permitted, but it will be
somehow impossible to make a digital copy of an analog transmission to prevent
movies and television programs from being distributed on the Internet. Because,
as we all know, there's nothing we want more than to gather round the computer
and boogie.
The CBDTPA gives hardware manufacturers a year to come up with a solution
acceptable to the movie and recording industries. If they fail to agree, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will decide for them how to go about
it.
Hopefully the general public will be educated that this bill is really not to
extend broadband to more people and make digital tv adopted easier, but really
to lock down our PCs to the point that they are no longer a true use to us.
Interesting this comes up as I had just sent an email to The Register about how
I believe that the general public will be led to believe the SSSCA is solution for all
the problems in the digital domain and so on. Well they did exactly what I expected,
only better than I expected. Read the email here.
Source: The USA Register
