Brad Hunt, the CTO of the MPAA, got an angry reception from a bunch of Hollywood tech-providers when he presented the MPAA's "A-hole" filtering plan.
For a couple years now, the MPAA has been promising to "plug the Analog Hole" by getting the government to pass a law crippling all recorders, so that they'll refuse to record anything with a secret watermark that says it's a copyrighted work (heaven help you if your son's first steps take place in the living room while the TV's playing — your camcorder will be of no use).
Hunt gave the talk to a group of high-tech suppliers who provide entertainment technology for Hollywood and its viewers, and they greeted the A-hole proposal with the skepticism it deserves.
One questioner asked who would be responsible for the extensive consumer education needed. Hunt's answer — that he hoped retailers would do it — drew dubious groans.
The final question summed up the problem: "This is a room full of people whose living depends on this working. You're getting pushback to the point of hostility. If you can't sell this to us, how are you going to sell it to the target 16-45 demographic?"
Hunt said the marketplace would ultimately sort it out.
This Hunt's an interesting character. I once was at a meeting with him where we had no Internet access, so I went and got the conference center to turn on an Ethernet jack. Before I could get hooked up to it and turn on a WiFi service for the room, Hunt grabbed it and hogged it for the rest of the afternoon, refusing to turn on connection sharing so that a room full of TV, electronics, and film people could get online too. Taking advice from him on how public-interest policy should be set would be like putting Scrooge McDuck in charge of the local soup kitchen.
