All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

Fritz's Hit List

ziggy on 2002-10-02T19:14:27

Ed Felten is cataloging a series of products that would need to incorporate DRM should the Fritz Hollings' CBDTHHHPPPTA become law. The list, as it currently stands, includes the following:

  1. Billy the Big Mouth Bass
  2. Amana Messenger Refrigerator
  3. Philips Digital Baby Monitor
  4. auto navigation systems
  5. Aibo
  6. digital answering machines
  7. Shop With Me Barbie Cash Register
  8. TinkleToonz Musical Potty
Ed's adding to this list at the rate of one product per day. All products listed qualify as "digital media devices" that "reproduce copyrighted works in digital form". If the Hollings bill passes, all of these items would need to be manufacured with government approved copy protection technology.

Yep. A potty trainer with DRM. What's next? Warning labels on chefs knives saying «The object you are about to use contains a very sharp surface that can cut, maim, kill or otherwise cause irreparable bodily injury. Use with extreme caution.»

What's next?

gav on 2002-10-02T19:49:53

I once bought a hose attachement that said: "Warning: do not spray water into electrical outlets".

I always thought that was pretty obvious.

Re:What's next?

jdavidb on 2002-10-02T20:37:20

There used to be an Apple II software company that printed warnings like "Do not insert into toasters or alligators" on their 5.25" floppy sleeves.

Re:What's next?

petdance on 2002-10-02T20:50:56

That would be the Beagle Bros. They were just visual icons, not words.

Illegal circumvention knowledge in this list

jdavidb on 2002-10-02T20:39:55

It occurs to me that if the legislation passes, this list may become useful as an inventory of items that "slipped under the radar" and can be used to circumvent DRM. It's unlikely you'll see any uses out of the potty, but items like the digital answering machine could probably be hacked to do evil things like play your music in a form not intended by its creators.

Digital

bart on 2002-10-03T21:30:41

What's this obsession with "in digital form", anyway? It's just one manner of processing audio. The fact that it's digital, is only a technical detail and should not matter at all to the legislator.

Re:Digital

jdporter on 2002-10-04T17:04:59

I can see why it would matter to the recording industry (in whose pocket the legislator is currently taking up residence) -- digital recordings can be copied losslessly.