Plugging the Analog Hole

There’s a law on the table that aims to plug the analog hole by making every digital recording device include copy-sensing-and-disabling technology.

This is so staggering that I almost wouldn’t believe it, if not for the other crap that’s come out of the recording industry via Congress. I wonder who they paid for this one. I’m going to look right now (and I promise I didn’t before).

Hm. A Mr.Sensenbrenner. Never heard of him. I expected it to be a known RIAA shill (that I had heard of before). Surprising a bit — I suspect he belongs to the MPAA rather than the RIAA. Let’s see.

Political Money Line indicates that he received the most money from Communication and Technology groups. I wonder how much was from technology groups, and how much from communication? I can’t tell, because I’m not a paid member of the site. I suspect, given that tech companies generally lose on DRM, and communication companies (read: MPAA, RIAA) win in the short term, that those contributions came from the MPAA.

Yet another (qualified) example of how your votes don’t matter, only your money. This sort of thing is what drove me to join the EFF. If media groups’ paying legislators to make your life more difficult concerns you, you should too:

ADDENDUM: I know at least Jack Valenti, a lobbyist for and former president of the MPAA, has paid him off. I don’t know how many other MPAA/RIAA lobbyists have.

ADDENDUM #2: Here’s an RIAA-Free list of CDs. You can vote with your dollar by not giving it to those groups, too.

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