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

["Robert S. Thau" <rst(at)ai.mit.edu>]

John Zulauf writes:

 > 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.

Ummm... the tech companies aren't sitting on their rumps; they *are*
the collaborators in CPRM, HDCP, etc.  For instance, the CPRM spec at

  http://www.4centity.com/tech/cprm/

was cowritten by IBM, Intel, Matsushita and Toshiba.  (For those
keeping score, that's the same IBM that was paying people to deface
sidewalks with "Peace, Love, Linux" graffiti).

And of course, Microsoft is happy to do anything that will exclude
uncertified, insecure software from peoples' desktops; I trust I don't
have to catalog their various recent initiatives.

As to what they expect to gain from this, my guess is stability; if
you have to join a pervasive licensing regime (read cartel) in order
to join the marketplace, then existing players don't have to worry so
much about new competition emerging from someone's garage.

rst