MPAA wants your "home theater" to have a licence (and spy tech)

[intaglio]

Perhaps people need to be outraged with this little bit of Big Brother

/snip
Los Angeles , CA - The MPAA is lobbying congress to push through a new bill that would make unauthorized home theaters illegal. The group feels that all theaters should be sanctioned, whether they be commercial settings or at home.

/snip
The bill would require that any hardware manufactured in the future contain technology that tells the MPAA directly of what is being shown and specific details on the audience. The data would be gathered using various motion sensors and biometric technology.

/snip
The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29" with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/11/home-theater-regulations.html

On DABS.com (UK online dealer) 144 of 185 TVs offered are 30" diagonal or more, all are (at least) stereo capable, rooms with a TV in them seem to have more than 2 or more comfortable chairs. Does this proposal strike you as just a licence to .....






print money?

[Kutjara]

1. It's the perfect symbiosis of corporate greed and...

...government malice. The movie companies will have yet another means of squeezing money out of their shoddy products, and the government will have all the technology they need to spy on us in our homes. The article may be satire, but I hope it doesn't give anyone any ideas.

[Mythsaje]

2. I'll be shocked if this goes anywhere...

How long have people had "home theater" systems? Fifteen, twenty years? How many Americans now have 32" or larger HDTVs and the whole setup just to watch sports, if not movies? What Congressman would be crazy enough to piss off hordes of constituents just to please the MPAA?

They'd have to be insane.

[The Straight Story]

3. Satire :) (nt)

[Kagemusha]

4. Wait, wait, wait!! Hoax story

If you go click on the link with more stories it shows this one, saying that instead of releasing the Sony PS3 this Christmas, it'll release the PS4 instead!

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/09/sony-playstation-4.html

Another headline reads "Drug Companies Want Standardized DNA". It's the Onion of tech stories from the looks of it.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Even better...............

Sony Unveils New Self-Destructive DVD Player
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/05/self_destruct.html

:rofl:

[Mist]

5. It seems it's the terminolgy that has them hyperventilating--go back to

calling them "media rooms." And yes, I saw that it's a satire.

[fishwax]

7. MPAA to thwart pirates by making all movies suck

Using one-dimensional characters and predictable plots lines, movies will be so insulting to the intellect of the viewer that no one that can use a computer would bother to download them.

The MPAA has already tested the method in releases such as Baby Geniuses 2, Son of the Mask, Alone in The Dark, and Coach Carter. In a focus group of computer-literate adults, test films were able to elicit such reactions as, "Oh God, why," "I want those two hours of my life back," and "I'll be skull-fucked by imps before I ever sit through that horseshit again."

"We are sending a clear message to pirates," said MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman, "One way or another; you will pay for your crime. Your punishment may come in the form of a lawsuit, or in the mind-numbing mediocrity of Gigli, but you will be punished.

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/03/mpaa_piracy.html

:rofl:

[rpannier]

8. OMG!!! That is soooooo f**king laughable.

That's so f**king Orwellian it's unreal.
If Congress passes this they should be dragged out of their offices, beaten within an inch of their lives and driven out of Congress, forever banned from holding any elected office.

This is just another attempt by corporate America to get more money from Americans.

I'm so f**king sorry MPAA, that people no longer want to pay 8 bucks to see a movie in a theater and pay 15 bucks for popcorn and two cokes.

What's next?
Sensors in the boxes to detect the ages of the audience? If someone under 17 is watching an R rated movie and not accompanied by an adult will it shut off the screen.

[TheWatcher]

9. What worries me is that it is getting harder to tell what is Real and

What is from The Onion.

I wouldn't laugh at this too much.

In the kind of world we live in now, what we laugh at as Satire is giving Big Brother new ideas.

[Kagemusha]

11. No question. Today's satire, tomorrow's front page news

not that this is teaching Big Brother anything, but satire has a very target rich environment these days.

[OneBlueSky]

10. when consumers get totally fed up and start boycotting DVD sales and rentals . . .

the MPAA will change their tune right quick . . . it's all about money, and the only place they can be made to feel anything is by significantly reducing the $$$ coming in to their members . . .

corporations may legally be "persons," but they have no conscience, no emotions, no soul -- like flesh and blood persons . . . the ONLY thing that they respond to is money, so hitting their bottom lines is the ONLY way to influence them . . .

and it works . . .

[hughee99]

12. I see the MPAA has settled on a new HD-DVD format as well...

"The discs hold 0% of the data of conventional DVDs. Drive manufacturers said that it will be much easier to meet these specs compared with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. "They'll work with existing machines without any changes, said Niigata.

"Of course, some users might complain about the fact that there is no content on these discs, but we're certain our law-abiding customers will see that as a small price to pay for the security resulting from the advanced DRM. And of course, if we receive any complaints, we'll subpoena the whiners under the DMCA, because they're probably guilty of some form of copyright infringement."

"Utbar said he didn't think consumers would mind paying $14.95 and not seeing Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo."

http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/04/unbreakable-drm.html