Thursday, 25 April 2002

Technobabble from Valenti

Then there is the mysterious magic of being able, with a simple click of a mouse, to send a full-length movie hurtling with the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) to any part of this wracked and weary old planet. It is that uncomprehending fact of digital life that disturbs the sleep of the entire U.S. film industry.

About 2/3 the speed of light in fibre; 1/3 in copper; speed of light in air. But when was miles per second a useful unit for a movie? I know they measure films in feet, but you can't send a mile of film per second. Anyway, when a film is projected it really does travel to the screen at the speed of light...

I'm not even sure how a fact can be uncomprehending.

In testimony before the Judiciary and Commerce Committees I have outlined a number of specific goals relative to the development and adoption of technology standards by the Information Technology (IT), consumer electronics (CE) and copyright communities. These include the adoption of a "broadcast flag" to prevent unencrypted over-the-air digital television broadcasts from being redistributed on the Internet; adoption and implementation of technology to plug the "analog hole" whereby protected content is stripped of its protection through the digital to analog, or analog to digital, conversion process, and the adoption and implementation of technology to limit the rising tide of unauthorized peer-to-peer file distribution of copyrighted works, of which I have spoken. The attainment of these goals is key to the viability of a legitimate marketplace for the online digital distribution of motion pictures,

Here is where he gets it badly wrong. As he has said that they want to distribute movies digitally, and they think 99% of users would pay a reasonable price, what justification is there to burden everyone else with the cost of developing these technical 'fixes'? Why not just prosecute the abusers under existing copyright laws, as he has outlined?

No comments:

Post a Comment