Dan Gillmor's column yesterday sounds a note of hope — after seeing all the very cool devices on the floor at CES, devices that pay "lip service to the cartel's wish for absolute control over how copyrighted material may be used," he concludes that, "tomorrow is not on the side of the copyright control freaks." I share some of his optimism, but, as I wrote to him:
A good point to reflect on is that since any
anti-copying tech can be broken by technically sophisticated users (if
by no other means than by redigitizing the cleartext output from analog
AV outputs), anti-copying measures *can't* stop "piracy." These measures
won't slow down organized gangs of Ukranian counterfeiters, or even
college dormnet traders. The *only* people these measures are proof
against is average, non-sharing users. IOW, these measures only effect
legit uses — like making a copy for the car, cottage or kids' room —
and have no effect on sharing.What shakes out of this is that the nods made by CE companies to
Hollywood are still supremely anti-customer. They will *not* slow down
"piracy," but they will enforce the entertainment companies' desire to
force their honest users to buy the same product again and again, rather
than format- or space-shifting.
