EFF Creates Endangered Gizmos List

linuxwrangler writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation this week announced the creation of the Endangered Gizmos List. According to their press release, this project highlights 'the way misguided laws and lawsuits can pollute the environment for technological innovation.' The site categorizes technologies ranging from the Betamax to the Advanced eBook Processor as 'Saved', 'Endangered' or 'Extinct'."

Coral link

[ControlFreal]

When linking to a site like this, consider adding .nyud.net:8090 to the hostname; that creates a cached Coral link. This prevents slashdotting.

So here [nyud.net].

EFF Endangered Gizmos List

[Anonymous Coward]

FCC Chairman Michael Powell calls TiVo "God's machine," and its devotees have been known to declare, "You can take my TiVo when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!" But suppose none of us had ever been given the opportunity to use or own a TiVo -- or, for that matter, an iPod? Suppose instead that Hollywood and the record companies hunted down, hobbled, or killed these innovative gizmos in infancy or adolescence, to ensure that they wouldn't grow up to threaten the status quo?

That's the strategy the entertainment industry is using to control the next generation of TiVos and iPods. Its arsenal includes government-backed technology mandates, lawsuits, international treaties, and behind-the-scenes negotiations in seemingly obscure technology standards groups. The result is a world in which, increasingly, only industry-approved devices and technologies are "allowed" to survive in the marketplace.

This is bad news for innovation and free competition, but it also threatens a wide range of activities the entertainment conglomerates have no use for -- everything from making educational "fair" use of TV or movie clips for a classroom presentation, to creating your own "Daily Show"-style video to make a political statement, to simply copying an MP3 file to a second device so you can take your music with you.

Rather than sit back and watch as promising new technologies are picked off one-by-one, EFF has created the Endangered Gizmos List to help you defend fair use and preserve the environment for innovation.

DVD X-Copy
DVD X-Copy
Species: DVD X-Copy
Genus: DVD archiving program
Closest Surviving Relatives: DeCSS, libdvd, and more powerful CSS decryption utilities are liberally available online.
What it is: A DVD backup utility.
What it allowed you to do: Create backup copies of your DVDs, record fair-use excerpts of DVD movies.
Why it's extinct: Hollywood sued the company that made DVD X-Copy out of existence, successfully arguing that it violated the highly controversial "anti-circumvention" clause in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
What you can do about it: It's too late to save DVD X-Copy, but you can use EFF's Action Center to tell Congress that you support the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA; HR 107) -- a bill that would amend the DMCA to restore your ability to circumvent copy protection to make legal, personal uses of your DVDs.
Replay TV 4000
Replay TV 4000 Series
Species: ReplayTV 4000
Genus: Personal Video Recorder (PVR)
Closest Surviving Relatives: TiVo's "Tivo-to-go" is heavily encumbered by DRM and its 30-second skip is hidden. Build-your-own PVRs like MythTV let you skip commercials and export files to your heart's content.
What it is: A personal video recorder with user-friendly features.
What it allowed you to do: Skip over commercials and send recorded TV programs to another ReplayTV device.
Why it's extinct: Former Turner Broadcasting CEO Jamie Kellner called skipping commercials "theft" -- and evidently the major motion picture studios agree. They sued the manufacturers of ReplayTV out of existence, and the company that purchased it buckled under and removed the contested features.
What you can do about it: EFF intervened in the case to fight for ReplayTV users' right to make perfectly legal, non-infringing uses of their PVRs, but we couldn't stop the subsequent settlement and sell-out. That means it's too late to save the original ReplayTV -- but by joining EFF as a member, you can support our efforts to stop the adoption of international trade agreements that would make it against the law in many countries to include ReplayTV-like features in new devices.
Streambox VCR
Screenshot of Streambox VCR
Species: Streambox VCR
Genus: Recorder for "time-shifting" RealAudio streams
Closest Surviving Relatives: Gizmos like the TotalRecorder, which can capture audio streams later in the path by emulating the soundcard device.
What it is: A software program for recording and playing back RealAudi

Actual list and mirror

[Meostro]

Actual list is http://www.eff.org/endangered/list.php [eff.org].

Mirrored here [wetsexygirl.com], but the link is NSFW so I can't check to make sure I got it right.

Re:D/A; A/D Converters Endangered??

[Anonymous Coward]

They meant free D/As, that don't have DRM/watermark recognition

Re:Well, the attempts aren't as good as CD's

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you are wrong. Due to the DRM and the licensing rules that comes with it, no SACD or DVD-Audio player can be built that passes the full quality multi-channel sound to a digital out (coax or TosLink). You not only have to buy a new player, you have to directly hook it up to 5.1 speakers; bypassing the quality Dolby Digital and DTS tuners and speakers that audiophiles already have. SACD and DVD-Audio players will only provide RCA right left audio out to another device. If it could be plugged into an existing multi speaker amplifier setup it would be much more successful.

Not only for the U.S.

[Garabito]

I live in a tiny country in Central America. A "free -trade agreement" has been negotiated between the U.S. and five Central America countries plus Dominican Republic.

Because of geographical and political reasons, the United States of America has been the most important trade partner for these countries, so this agreement seems very important for the economic future of the region. Some people talk about the dangers of this treaty not being approbed, how many jobs will be lost and so forth. (Some of these concerns may be real, but some are FUD spread by the bussines which would get more benefits from this agreement)

Well, it just happens that this agreement has clauses that will require these countries to implement DMCA-like measures, like the outlaw of anti-circunvention devices for copyrighted materials.

Also, it will force the adoption of an US-like patent system, which will include software patents; and an extended protection time for pharma patents

It seems like to be eligible for the priviledge of "free trade" with the US, other countries will have to change their legislation to appeal more to the corporations that fund the U.S. goverment.