The Illinois corruption mess is one more indication that certain of our so-called leaders may be among the biggest crooks here in the United States. Imagine—Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich allegedly hoping to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Just like the good old days.
Meanwhile back in D.C. our leaders keep selling out the Net to Hollywood. No bribery or illegalities charged here. But what do you think of this, gang? FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate says she loves DRM and ISP filtering, presumably to keep us all honest.She says DRM is “very effective” (PDF alert). How does she know? Well, if nothing else, she fondly recalls a briefing that Disney gave her.
There is at least some hope.Tate says that “in South Korea, Warner Brothers is combating piracy of its DVDs by releasing a watermarked version online, instead of a DRM-protected DVD. The particular watermark in these videos is called a ‘forensic watermark’ and will allow Warner Brothers to track its content through networks as it is illegally shared.” Er, could there be a reason why Warner in this case just might be avoiding DRM?
Look, I want the entertainment business—book publishing included!—to make money, and I’m ant-piracy. But by alienating customers, DRM is anti-profit. In being so pro-industry and anti-consumer, might Tate be angling for a job with the RIAA or a similar outfit? That wouldn’t be on the level of the Illinois governor’s alleged crimes. But it still stinks.
Related: Slashdot from April 19, 2006, and yesterday. Also see Ars Technica and Infoworld for rebuttals to Tate.
And speaking of D.C. muck: The Solomon Scandals site is back up after glitches at my Web hosting service. Scandals is partly about cronyism among bureaucrats and real estate tycoons leasing to the government. And you can bet that the same idea applies to Congress, RIAA-type groups and the DRM debate.
