Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] MPAA at it again.

[John Clark]

Alfred A. Aburto Jr. schrieb:

> Thank you ... but digitization in general is ok, right(?), just can't 
> do, ahem, "illegal digitization, of video signals"  ... the A/D would 
> detect "illegal digitization" and not allow it, right?  As long as it 
> didn't screw up the A/D processing and software required, this may be 
> ok I think ...
>
> > The MPAA wants to require all such devices to disable 'conversions' 
> > on bit patterns found
> > in the signal, and those that don't conform, will be 'illegal'.
> I think this is reasonable so long as the performance the the A/D 
> processing is not crippled in the act of checking for illegal bit 
> patterns ... I'd hope it would have an extremely low error rate so as 
> to not screw up some otherwise valid A/D conversion process.


I don't know how this would be implemented, and what, if any 'general 
digitizer' products would be affected. I gave
the example of 1394 and disabling 'promiscuous' mode for most users. I 
ran in to this one when I didn't have the
money to rent/buy a 1394 analyzer, and needed to monitor traffic between 
two machines. Disabling this feature
has not broken the use of 1394 as the standard DV-Still-Camera interface 
for millions, but that disabling allows
the 'entertainment' industry a potential distribution method which can 
not normally be 'monitored'. Of course the
same group which pirates entertainment products could purchase the 
'professional' hardware needed to circumvent
the 'protection' scheme.

In the present case it would most likely affect developers on a limited 
budget (or no budget), in the acquisition of
parts for development and design, as well as paying for some form of 
certifications of conformity.


John Clark