Re: [dvd-discuss] Re: Sen. Hollings plans to introduceDMCAsequel: The SSSCA

["John Zulauf" <johnzu(at)ia.nsc.com>]

"Arnold G. Reinhold" wrote:

> I expect added expense and consumer mistrust the new rules generate
> will delay consumer acceptance of the "convergence" machines that the
> industry is counting on for the second half of the decade.  Congress
> is planning on selling the traditional NTSC television spectrum, but
> by law this can only happen when HDTV achieves 85% market
> penetration.  And prices will be driven up by the cost of the new
> security equipment and, more importantly, by reduced competition as
> PC manufacture is limited to the few vendors who can jump through all
> the hoops.
> 
> Consumers can just say, "no thank you" to new products that limit
> their freedom, cost more and which they don't need. That could be the
> most powerful vote of all.


This is what **really** gripes me.  In the name of promoting the brave
new digital world and protecting American business they are about to
sabotage the "next-cool-thing" and with it the economy.  By allow the
media companies to specify, prescribe, and proscribe what digital device
do -- they're going to kill the technology industry dead.

(a) Laws artificially reduce the functions of FOO={PC,digital device}
(b) These articial constraints do not meaningfully reduce the costs of
FOO, as they are based on the memory/compute intensive media processing
stuff (call it BAR)
(c) The value of FOO is reduced because of the restrictions on the
output of BAR
(d) The customer will buy fewer FOO at and at a lower price
(e) The value of silicon that can do BAR is reduced
(f) The cost to create silicon that does BAR is not reduced
(g) The ROI for BAR is reduced
(h) Fewer companies compete in the unprofitable BAR industry
(i) Engineers are laid off
(j) Can't afford the new car, house, boat, or FOO
(k) GOTO (d) and repeat into the next recession....

Beyond that, if all software must be registered

(a) how does one learn to program
(b) how does one debug the program (since an undebugged version clearly
can neither be certified or registered
(c) how does any technology company bring any NEW product to market?
(c.1) how do silicon vendor provide development/debug boards?
(c.2) how are new feature developed, when the bound of the device are
utterly circumscribed

Finally

WHY HAVE ALL THE TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES JUST SAT ON THEIR RUMPS while
their industries future is being sold down the river and why have the
collaborators on CPRM HDCP CPSA et. al. been praised for this work.  I
know this is the prisoner dilemma, but nobody seems to even be bringing
these issues up.

Best.

.002