Circuit Rider
Version 3.8
By Jim Scheef

The Analog Hole
Do you like to record television shows and watch them later? Whether you use an old VCR tape machine or a new disk-based digital video recorder, these “older” devices will become obsolete soon as digital TV takes over, so you will need new equipment. A bill (H.R. 4569, the Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005) was recently introduced in Congress by Representatives Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Conyers (D-MI) to make sure your new recording and viewing devices all function the way the movie industry wants them to function. Eventually you will need to replace your old analog devices, which will close this loophole. Why call this a loophole? Because according to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), this is what allows those vicious hacker devices (home recording machines) to function. The bill would mandate that all recording and playback devices honor proprietary security information (aka: the broadcast flag) embedded in cable as well as over-the-air broadcasts in the form of a digital watermark developed by VEIL Interactive Technologies, of St. Louis, MO. This would allow the following scenarios: you’re going away on vacation, so you set your DVR to record Desperate Housewives. When you return a few days later and start to watch the show, a message shows on the screen that the recording must be viewed within two days and will be erased. Or you just recorded the Super Bowl on your computer and now you want to transfer it to your new Video iPod. The system message says that this program can only be viewed on devices from a certain manufacturer. Or you set your machine to record a new first-run movie so your family can enjoy it the next nite, only to be told that the program is for broadcast viewing only and cannot be recorded at all.

So what, you say? You’ll just keep using your old VCR. Well, that my friends, is the analog hole. It is based on the principle that if you can see or hear it, you can record it, and it drives the big movie studios crazy. It may be the last vestige of fair use you have to broadcast programming and any digital content. The studios realize that the transition to digital broadcasting and high-definition television is their big chance to take total control over broadcast content, and they are lobbying hard to get this control. They may not have Jack Abramoff anymore to spread their money around, but that will not slow them down. The only thing that might slow them down is you communicating your wishes to your Congress-people by phone, email and letter. You can find resources on this on the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s web site (www.eff.org).

Given the entertainment industry’s recent history with digital rights management (DRM) software, you can bet that their solution will be safe, bug-free, and will not pose any security risk to your computer or other digital devices. Sure… The technology mandated in this bill is, as noted earlier, a proprietary system that has not been opened to expert review. Naturally, the bill makes it a crime to reverse engineer the DRM software for any purpose, including security research. They do allow access to the source code, but only after paying $10,000 for a “license” and signing a non-disclosure agreement that prevents you from saying anything if you do find a problem.

The Washington lobbying scandal and your digital rights
Here is how the scandal in Washington affects you personally. Believe it or not, Jack Abramoff had clients beyond Native American nations and others surrounding the gaming industry. Back in the late 90’s he also represented several information technology companies. Would it surprise you to learn that Microsoft was a client? According to an article in eWeek magazine (Jan. 16, 2006), Abramoff lobbied Congress, the White House, and various federal agencies for Microsoft in 1998 on issues including encryption, online commerce and network security. From 1998-2000 Abramoff lobbied for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) “on issues including encryption, copyright protection, export controls and trade.” So here we have an example of how laws such as H.R. 4569 above get passed. Given Abramoff’s methods on behalf of the Indian tribes (and sometimes, concurrently those working against the same tribes), one can assume that he did “an effective” job to ensure that someone other than you controls how you use digital content.

What you can do
Please do not sit on your hands. There are two things that politicians listen to: money and their constituents. They need both to get reelected. If you don’t want your next TV to be a brain-damaged device run by the movie studios, then you need to call your Congress people now. Tell them you want them to protect your right to fair use of the digital content that you purchase on DVD or record from broadcast. It is most important that you call your representative. For most of us that is either Christopher Shays (202-225-5541) or Nancy Johnson (202-225-4476). Tell them that you are against H.R. 4569 and that you want them to oppose the bill. You can also send them email from their Congressional web sites (www.house.gov). Don’t sit on your hands, we need to stop this now – we are fighting big money.

I’m from the government and I’m here to help you
In another news item from that same issue of eWeek, there is a note that the Department of Homeland Security plans to spend $1.24 million of our tax money to audit the source code of several widely used open-source products. The project, called the “Vulnerability Discovery and Remediation, Open Source Hardening Project”, is part of a larger federal goal to audit the security of products such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, FreeBSD, Mozilla and SendMail. Using automated code analysis techniques from Coventry, Inc, a San Francisco-based company, Stanford University engineers will scan source code for vulnerabilities and report their findings on a publicly accessible database. I don’t know about you, but I feel safer already.


 
 
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