Endangered Gizmos

remember how excited you were in 1990 when you got your brand new DAT cassette deck? Now, at last, you could make hiss-free digital recordings!

You don't? Oh, that's because a coalition led by the RIAA threatened to sue any manufacturer who would sell them in the US. They eventually lost a lawsuit designed to stop their release, but by then, the technology, which could have been inexpensive if aggressively developed, was only affordable by recording studios and such.

For the RIAA, it was mission accomplished.

Other technologies have come under similar attack, mainly from the RIAA and the MPAA, seeking to protect their interests in making money off of every single copy of music or film that is produced. Today's FamilyFirst pick is called Endangered Gizmos, and it lists technologies that are extinct, endangered, or saved. Sadly, the saved list is the shortest.

The fear of big corporate entities and their massive legal teams has had a profound effect on the development of technology. Endangered Gizmos seeks to stir up the public about what has happened to devices and technologies that have been denied them by litigation, or just the THREAT of litigation.

For example, have you ever heard of Streambox VCR? It was a program that would record broadcasts in the Real format for later listening. Here's what happened:

RealNetworks didn't want just any company to be able to interoperate with its closed system for content delivery. It sued Streambox under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), arguing that the program violated the law's "anti-circumvention" provisions when it mimicked Real's "secret handshake" to capture audio streams. Struggling under the weight of the lawsuit, Streambox eventually settled -- and when the dust cleared, the VCR utility was sentenced to life in an underground development lab.

Does that make you angry? it should. Do you know how close DVR technology came to never reaching your home? The only reason you have one is that ReplayTV's commercial skipping technology is not installed. Ergo, you zap commercials manually instead of automatically.

Read more, get mad, and help the cause:

http://w2.eff.org/endangered/

Digg It! It's Del.icio.us! Furl It!