Consumer Electronics Show Offers Picture of TV's Future (Las Vegas Review-Journal) [LWN.net]

Consumer Electronics Show Offers Picture of TV's Future (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Posted Jan 10, 2003 23:47 UTC (Fri) by rknop (guest, #66)
Parent article: Consumer Electronics Show Offers Picture of TV's Future (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

...and with every packet that passes between any device, a log will be sent to the computers of (a) Jack Valenti, who will make sure you pay, and (b) John Ashcroft, who will make sure you get locked up if you do anything irregular.

(And if you think that sounds paranoid, you should read what's going on in our government a bit more often.)

Still, I like what the article says about that guy calling for an open standard. He's absolutely right-- open standards are what we need if things really are going to interoperate. The other option is greatly increased monopolies, which makes a few winners (and the congressmen they buy) happy, but isn't good for pretty much anybody else.

-Rob

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Consumer Electronics Show Offers Picture of TV's Future (Las Vegas

Posted Jan 14, 2003 9:41 UTC (Tue) by beejaybee (guest, #1581) [Link]

" ...and with every packet that passes between any device, a log will be sent to the computers of (a) Jack Valenti, who will make sure you pay, and (b) John Ashcroft, who will make sure you get locked up if you do anything irregular."

So exactly how does this log record get out of the system? If it's passing through the 'Net, you can block it at your gateway.

Or, if the device is truly "open", remove the code fragment that creates the offending log record.

How is Ashcroft going to lock you up without the evidence of wrongdoing contained in the log record (if that's what the log record is for)? Is the law going to be changed so that you can be convicted on the basis of a non-barking dog, without evidence that the dog even exists?

Yet another example of technology being aimed at controlling the unsophisticated "average user" who has no criminal intent. To anyone who really wants to steal intellectual property, this is no more significant than a gnat bite is to an elephant.