EFF Creates Endangered Gizmos List 213
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'."
Err Don't They Strengthen the Environment? (Score:4, Interesting)
Endangered Shameless Lawyers is More Like It (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey, but I've still held onto my old orange cyber-rights clenched-fist-on-a-field-of-lightning-bolts T-Shirt after all these years, so I guess I should give props to their Creative Services Department as well...
Dead Media Project (Score:5, Interesting)
His site is more focussed on older (nineteenth-century, early twentieth-century) stuff than the EFF site, and of course, not everything dies of regulatory or copyright strangulation.
but seriously (Score:3, Interesting)
Interesting:
censorship bears the legacy of copyright. For example, the custom of printers and authors to have their name listed with their creations began as a law demanding this practice, not to ensure the originator due credit, but in order for the king to keep track of disobedient writers. Brendan Scott (2000)
falling costs is met with more computer capacity for a sustained price, and therefore that new computers never will reach the poor majority (Stallabrass, 1995)
"The justification for the patent system is that by slowing down diffusion of technological progress it ensures that there will be more progress to diffuse... Since it is rooted in a contradiction, there can be no such thing as an ideally beneficial patent system [...]" [60].
Yes I do lean towards marxism and no, this is not a anti-capitalism rant although this article [firstmonday.org] does point out the obvious (for some) that we have moved from feudalism to capitalism and are GRADUALLY moving towards something else.
Don't forget Teddy Ruckspin (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What's the point? (Score:3, Interesting)
mp3 players, A/D - D/A chips, TIVOs and P2P software are on that list, and you can't say people don't use them.
What a I missing ?
--> reading the FA before posting an opinion maybe
"We want to be free! (Score:1, Interesting)
We want to be free to ride!
To ride our machines without being hassled by the man! "
When Gizmo's are outlawed, only outlaws will own gizmo's!
Seriously! There will be no extinction of gizmos which offer a high level of utility.
Prohibition resulted in a massive black market in alcohol and cigarettes. At present there is a huge trade in low/no tax cigarettes. Bootleg satellite TV subscriptions blanket Canada. Yes, there's marijuana and drug(illicit and gray) markets too.
So, hardcore experimenters will be able to buy their ADAC's and consumers their useful products. It's just gonna be a friend of a friend sort of deal.
The real danger is erosion of the USA legal system. There are already way too many 'designer' laws.
A word on the extinct devices... (Score:2, Interesting)
Now, it would be then "Illegal" for the people who buys it inside united states, but I think nothing stops me for selling it from, say, somwhere in south america or europe...
Am I wrong?, maybe one of the "solutions" for all this would be simply to move the company to another place out of US.
Or maybe I am missing something here...
Re:Was beta really that good? (Score:1, Interesting)
It's not the same technology as the old home systems, but the foundation is exactly the same.
There has been speculation that the movie studios endorsed VHS (by only releasing movies on VHS) once they lost the Sony vs. Betamax case because the quality on VHS was much worse than Beta (and the shelf life was much shorter).
Posting as AC in case I'm completely wrong.
Chip Control (Score:3, Interesting)
We wont be even able to build our own hardware proejcts with out it being crippled, and having to license it ( at costs the average hobbiest cant afford ).. Regardless if it might 'infringe' something or not.
Re:D/A and A/D converters?? (Score:2, Interesting)
This has already happened in the world of picture scanning. Try putting a bill though a colour photocopier. The image of paper money is no longer able to pass through this conversion technology.
Re:D/A and A/D converters?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps there will be a lot of DRM-crippled A/D D/A converters in such applications but there will ALWAYS be non-crippled parts available to the industry.
Yes, Beta was, and is, far superior. (Score:2, Interesting)
In HD Beta looks even better.
Morpheus die already (Score:3, Interesting)
If You Have the "Engineer" Gene... (Score:3, Interesting)
At this point, I've accepted that there are things I do that may someday be considered a crime. I don't plan to stop:
-Record TV shows from my DirecTV reciever that I pay a monthly subscription fee for into my computer using a Hauppauge PVR250 card for archival purposes (to show friends and family when they come over)
-Rip all CDs that I buy to the infinitely more convenient Ogg Vorbis format so that I can listen to my music anywhere
-Stream any audio or video from my house to wherever I happen to be using a VPN connection and broadbad. This means I can listen to my music collection, watch my DVDs or even DirecTV as long as I have an internet connection
-Build custom digital media devices that don't have the limitations that commercial products do
The way things are going, I'm sure these things will become illegal eventually. It's a wonder it's not illegal to use a hammer, nails, screwdriver, drywall, plaster and screws to build or modify your house any way you want to.
Tech Industry Loopholes? (Score:3, Interesting)