For Hollywood studios, record labels and similar large enterprise content factories, the end of this year\'s legislative year is a great moment. At the end of October, the White House and Congress finally approved a controversial new copyright law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Law, which included changes The so-called content industry has been lobbying: among other things, the law stipulates that it is illegal to \"evade\" copyright control. The ban includes not only making illegal copies, but also creating tools that may help you make such copies. The dance of victory is likely to be short. However, I survived. - Because content companies are about to discover that they are also the main victims of the new law. These companies may like the part where illegal copies are prohibited by law because they are the main copyright owners. But for the artists in the stable, the restriction of tools will be a very headache. Content manipulation tools on the market- Video editing software or many sounds like Adobe Photoshop, Avid- Editing Program-- Will become less useful, will begin to disappear, the rest will become more expensive. Fritz Attaway, general counsel for the American Film Association, said everyone in his organization was celebrating years of hard work to convince Congress that this legislation was necessary. When asked about the negative effects of the bill, he said, \"I don\'t see any negative effects. \"But there are few such simple Hollywood results in real-life laws. In this crazy case of regulation, how can the content industry be both a winner and a victim? Crazy thinking about how works of art are created: first, artists sit down and use some tools; They then gave deep thought to the human condition and some complaints about how the world did not understand their perfect vision; Then they make some kind of work when the deadline is approaching. The tools they may use are brushes, pencils, paper, video tapes, movies and countless other media --- Including computers Each of these tools can be used to make illegal copies. But the last thing that upset Hollywood and the content group is. Lawyers for content rights holders realize that computers can easily make perfect copies. Children of Meddlesome began to use computers to make digital copies of songs on the internet, just like children make cassette tapes. Of course, lawyers in the content industry have not stopped to think that the tools used by their own artists are the same as those of punk children. In fact, the content factory may do more cutting and pasting than the rest of the world. \"The movie is first shown in the cinema, then on the home video after a period of time, then paidper- Then there is a pay channel and then a free TV. Depending on the film, this is a distribution chain that lasts two to four years. \"Said Attaway. \"The reason that distribution to households on the distribution chain came too late is because there is no way to prevent replication so far. \"The solution for the content industry is to push Congress to make laws against the business of making tools that can be copied. Thanks to the new law, anyone who makes a tool with the \"main purpose\" of the copyright protection avoidance mechanism, there will be a penalty of \"no less than $200 or more than $2,500 per evasive act, equipment\" for the products, components, provision or performance of the service, as the court considers. \"People who do this for the commercial good will face fines of up to $1 million and imprisonment for up to 10 years. Hollywood is clearly targeting people like garage E-Wizards, and the equipment they produce can solve the problem of cable services. These gadgets are usually sold illegally and they can get HBO, show time, or other expensive signals without paying for them. With the development of the Internet, there will certainly be more chaotic systems, and Hollywood wants to be prepared to prevent digital robbers from bypassing them. But in the process, Hollywood has never really bothered to think about who really did the most \"evasive\" thing --- Or what is the tool of \"avoidance. For most readers, the best way to master this dilemma is to use the basic cut-and-paste or copy-paste functionality built into all Web browsers and computer systems. You can test this by copying the text of the article and pasting it into the window of the word handler. ( Don\'t paste a copy in your email Mail program and send it to friends- This will infringe copyright. ) The big stuff in Hollywood comes together and I want to believe there is a way to differentiate between good cut paste and bad cut paste. This could be a side. From 1950 to watch too many of their own features, the morality of the characters was established in the first two minutes of the film. To address this issue, content groups are pushing for technical solutions that essentially lock in artwork. The editing device should look for a specific embedded no- Copy the mark and refuse to copy if such a mark is found. ( This kind of marking is often referred to as \"digital watermarks\", and the term is apt because they are often almost impossible to detect. ) Some of these features are already included in many lower features End editing tools and video tape groups. Only \"professionals\" with significantly increased costs can bypass the restrictions. For example, Adobe Photoshop will now scan files for embedded watermarks that may identify copyright owners. It only provides information today; In the future, it may simply refuse to let the artist do anything about the file. As the restrictions of the new law begin to integrate into all levels of technology, Hollywood\'s big copyright portfolio will begin to discover how onerous the new restrictions are. Imagine that some of Walt Disney\'s artists were given a mission to make a box for some of the recent films, such as Pocahontas. \"In the past, the artist could take a DVD version of the movie, stick it to the computer, and then cut and paste an image of Pocahontas from there. No one knows what will happen when the new bill comes out. If equipment and software are \"designed or produced primarily to circumvent the protection provided by technical protection measures that effectively protect the rights of copyright owners\", they are prohibited. If they \"have only limited commercial important purposes or uses in addition to circumventing the protection provided by technical protection measures, they are also prohibited. \"It\'s not clear what software companies are going to do at the moment, but they may remove the feature that allows people to take still frames out of DVD movies. Big content companies may be overjoyed. - This will prevent those children in the back of the head from cutting off a photo of Pocahontas, sticking a joint to her lips and posting it on the website. Of course, some tech savvy people in Peoria are having trouble distributing family movies using a recordable dvd, but in their opinion it\'s not a Disney issue, the main purpose of cutting and pasting from DVD movies is to interrupt the revenue stream of major enterprise groups. Essentially, the act prohibits the creation of tools for the selection of electronic copyright locks, and the content factory will stick to their products. Everyone knows that the lock works fine in most cases, but the Locksmith always needs to bypass the lock. The bill appears to prohibit the manufacture of the equipment. Attaway and others don\'t think it\'s going to be a problem. Of course, if people are authorized, there will be tools for legal evasion, he said. \"But how these tools will distinguish between good perimeter and bad perimeter, he says he suspects the bill will have any impact on the editorial tool market. \"I don\'t think anyone on the content side will think that these types of devices will be banned,\" he said . \". At the same time, the American record industry association, one of the sister industry groups of the American Film Association, is continuing to press to stop the release of Rio, a digital music player made by Diamond Multimedia. While Rio can only play digital MP3 recordings, it has to copy music data from the network to memory in order for you to listen to a track- Even before the new law came into effect, the association tried to stop its distribution. While Attaway does not see the arrival of the proceedings, who knows how others will deal with the new legislation behind these proceedings and regulations. All these lawsuits and regulations are bound to make the market for editing software bigger. For fear of being sent to prison for 10 years, fewer small companies will enter the arena with neat tools; Others will have a hard time designing and implementing new tools to automatically distinguish between the right and wrong cut and paste- Between good users and bad users. This will greatly increase the price of editing software. First of all, greater complexity will make it more difficult for programmers who write software, who now have to integrate the copyright juggling mechanism into editing tools at all levels; Second, the smaller \"legitimate\" market will mean a reduction in sales used to amortize development costs. Who knows how Disney\'s poor graphic artist will get a photo of Pocahontas for packaging, and maybe Disney will keep a special computer like a property that stores a version of the vault that is not protected by copy. Graphic artists may have access after passing through the appropriate channels-- But McDonald\'s artists are making a cross. Licensing deals will be harder. Maybe Disney will try to buy special Super Secret tool to unlock copy Protected images. These master keys will have to be more careful than non-master keys. copy- Protect content. If they fall into the hands of pirates, the copy protection system will be so affected. Content groups may not even know why their development costs will soar in the future. These companies are a huge organization in which lawyers who drive increasingly harsh laws are disconnected from artists who struggle with the tools they need to create. MPAA, RIAA and other content- Industry lobby groups are raving about the success of their legislation. At the same time, graphic artists, film editors, sound editors, business creators, marketers and almost all employees on the content assembly line will go through several additional corridors and sign more forms, get more data They play juggling on the steps before they finish their work. Another way to think about this is to review how the new replication technology stimulates the development of the content industry itself. In the Middle Ages, the monks copied the sacred text with their hands. The movable- The type of printing press led to a large number of books. Now, after the development of copiers, fax machines and the Internet, more widely than ever, more books are available to more people. Bookstores surged. In other words, content groups will only become bigger and more profitable as replication becomes easier and easier.
