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

The Las Vegas Review-Journal covers the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Sony's Linux-based devices. "In his keynote address on the first full day of the Consumer Electronics Show, Ando described his company's efforts to create integrated systems that let devices interact seamlessly. He imagined a Linux-based platform that will let data pass from digital cameras, digital video disk recorders to televisions, ferried by broadband."

to post comments

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) [Link] (1 responses)

...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

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.