Analog Hole Closing?

[Bantam]

Digitizing video signals might violate the DMCA

Could it become illegal to digitize analog signals? The District Court for the Southern District of New York has come perilously close to saying yes.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060816-7517.html

Saw this earlier in the week and was pretty surprised. But interested, of course. Thoughts on the analog hole closing?

[tomdkat]

Very interesting article, indeed. Thanks for posting the link.

I have mixed feelings about this. I see no problem with digitizing analog video. If Macrovision's ACP (analog copy protection) is lost during that process, that being an issue would depend on the analog video being processed. If we're talking commerically produced video (content purchased or rented), then Macrovision's ACP should be replaced with the digital equivalent when the analog video is digitized. If we're not talking about commercially produced video that had Macrovision ACP, for whatever reason, I see no compelling reason to perserve the ACP in any form in the digitized video.

I guess the main beef with the Sima product is it digitized the video for the apparent sole purpose of getting rid of ACP. I mean the Sima product digitized analog video then converted it back to analog. In this digital age, why would one want to go from digital back to analog? One reason would be to produce analog copies of commercial video without any copy protection. Using the Sima product to digitize the analog video and let it digital is a more legitimate use than what is described in the article. Replacing Macrovision's ACP with a digital equivalent we can leave for another discussion.

Great read!

Peace...