News

The hits just keep on coming in fair-use land. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has proposed legislation that requires that all digital radio content be encrypted, including works that now exist in the public domain. The proposed legislation would apply to satellite radio (Sirius, XM) as well as conventional terrestrial broadcasting. As proposed by the RIAA, content could be recorded only in blocks of 30 minutes or longer, and the recorded data could not be exported from the recording device (in other words, you could only play it back on the device you had recorded it on—no more recording programs on your hi-fi to listen to on your way to work). To learn more about this legislation, go to Public Knowledge's two-page summary. While you're there, you might want to check out "Why These Issues Matter."

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been busy, too. They're attempting to plug "the analog hole" with a piece of legislation called the "Analog Content Security Preservation Act of 2005."

So what's it all about? Pretty much the same stuff the MPAA tried to do in 2002 when it asked Congress to watermark all digital transmissions and mandate that all recording devices incorporate digital rights management (DRM) that "respected" that watermark. The "analog hole" is the current standard, which allows analog video material to be recorded. Under the proposed legislation, any device that receives digital video input would have to respect DRM technologies, including one called Content Generation Management System—Analog (CGMS-A). All content would fall into one of three categories: Copy Unlimited No Redistribution Content, Copy One Generation Content, or Copy Prohibited Content.

It gets worse. To quote from the proposal: "An Analog Video Input Device shall not record or cause the recording of Copy Prohibited Content in digital form except for retention for a period not to exceed 90 minutes from initial receipt of each unit of such content, including retention and deletion on a frame-by-frame, minute-by-minute or megabyte-by-megabyte basis, using a Bound Recording Method, and provided that such content shall be destroyed or otherwise rendered unusable prior to or upon expiration of such period." As Ars Technica translates that bit of legalese, "This means that your recorded program, should you start watching it an hour after it's done recording, will start to delete itself 30 minutes later. Think of the fun you and your family can have trying to keep ahead of the deletion queue!"

Ars Technica's analysis is right on the money, in our opinion. "These laws aren't about piracy, and anyone who thinks they are needs to stop, look, and listen. Once the MPAA and pals have their way, you're going to pay through the nose for even the most basic of fair use rights. You're going to pay for the right to rewind and 're-experience' content. The Copy Prohibited Content class, complete with its asinine insta-delete feature is nothing but a back door into attacking what the content industry hates most: your ability to timeshift content."

We couldn't have put it better, which is why we suggest you read the whole thang.