[PLUG] HR4569, video conversion, and Senator Smith

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Jan 6 19:20:10 UTC 2006


I hope to be meeting next week with a staffer in Senator Gordon
Smith's D.C. office about HR4569, the Digital Transition Content
Security Act, which may work its way towards a vote this year,
if the MPAA gets their way.

I posted to plug-talk about this a couple of weeks ago, and the
thread got hijacked.  As suggested at the general meeting tonight,
I will post again on the main list.  If you want to talk about
car licenses or the perfidy of Republicrats or something else,
kindly change the subject line, OK?


HR4569 is intended to close the "analog hole" in the digital rights
management chain.    Many of us disagree with DRM on principle, and
fight the Motion Picture Association of Amerika to protect the
rights of fair use and free speech.  This goes beyond that, because
one side effect of HR4569 may be the destruction of post-1960
electronic technology in the United States.  

The "analog hole" is the place where video leaves your VCR or
DVD player as analog signals (typically as one or three cables)
to go to your TV set or DVD recorder or TIVO or whatever.  These
analog signals can be captured by a digitizer, and the bits can
be stored on a DVD or sent out on the internet.  The analog signals
can be marked in multiple ways to signify that they are not supposed
to be copied, with either a signal in the strip of black above/below
the field of the signal ( CGSM-A vertical interval signalling, or
the "broadcast flag" ) or with a steganographic technique that 
signals by twiddling the luminance levels of successive lines of
video ( VEIL or Video Encoding Invisible Luminance ).  

HR4569 demands that digitizing systems preserve this information,
and in particular that they respond to it and not digitize if they
detect VEIL or CGSM-A signals indicating "do not copy".  These 
signals are not difficult to extract if the system is specialized
to handle video.  If this bill passes, and your "Tivo-Reloaded"
detects these signals on a broadcast show, it will refuse to
record the show.  Since both CGSM-A and VEIL signals are fairly
easy to detect if you know you are looking for them, it is also
pretty easy to build a stripper circuit that takes them out or
mangles them, and passes the rest of the information through. 
Such a circuit is specifically forbidden by HR4569.

So what's my beef?  Where does the doom and gloom come from?  Why
is this so major, and not merely a small step in the gradual
elimination of our fair use and free speech rights?

While there are systems that specialize in digitizing video, that
are built by the millions with inexpensive high yield technology,
these aren't the only digitizers out there, nor are they the only
digitizers capable of turning analog video into bits.  General
purpose analog-to-digital converters are used in thousands of
applications, and the same component or system that might be used
in an electronics test system or a cell phone can be used to
produce a stream of bits that could be recorded by a computer.
This could be no more complicated than plugging a PCI digitizer
card into a computer (and this is probably how they prototyped
the Tivo before they built specialized hardware).  This could be
as sophisticated as using a multi-gigahertz bleeding-edge-technology
Tektronix digital oscilloscope to capture similar bits, then 
running the record into a computer for analysis.  This is done
all the time when video equipment is designed - that's how the
design engineer can test whether the inexpensive consumer gear
they are designing will work under a broad range of conditions.

So in fact there is no clear distinction between electronics that
can digitize video and electronics for other purposes;  placing
all-encompassing constraints on video applications must be applied
to all applications, or else the constraints are useless.  There
are billions of converter chips and instruments and legacy consumer
gear already made and in the world that can do this conversion.  
HR4569 will not apply in Canada or Mexico or Europe or Asia.  So
this bill does not do much hole closing at all.  It just robs
consumers of simple options to exercise their fair use rights.

The problem comes if the MPAA uses this monopoly grant of power to
extend their reach to close more of the hole.  They would be enabled
by this bill to demand that a new Tektronix digitizing oscilloscope
have CGSM-A and VEIL technology built into the scope.  Irksome and
expensive, with the side effect that these instruments would be 
much less useful for developing video technology in the US.  But
the hole is still not plugged, just restricted on the margin.

The billions of analog-to-digital converters produced each year
are the next plausible target.  HR4569 does not recognize the 
difference between a component and a system; again, there is 
no clear technological distinction.  So the MPAA is entitled
to use their monopoly power to exercise prior restraint against
chip manufacturers, and distributors, to ensure that these chips
are fitted with detectors for CGSM-A and VEIL.  And this is where
the system collapses.  

A general purpose chip analog-to-digital converter can be used in
a number of different ways.  It can operate at a wide range of
sampling rates, so it is impossible to find line 21 in the vertical
interval to find CGSM-A, or to detect the characteristic 7200Hz
luminance signal of VEIL, because this requires recognizing many
details about the video signal and knowing accurately "what time
it is".  Chips don't know these things - this knowledge is
applied at the system level.  In fact, specialized video chips
could be run at different rates by the same sort or tricks that
computer overclockers use;  even if all these detectors were hard
coded into a chip, they are likely to be easily fooled by software
or hacking.  Yet the manufacturers and distributors of the chips
are held accountable, and subject to half-million dollar fines
per component, if their components can be used or abused this way.

Can you imagine the chilling effect this will have on the 
availability of electronic components in the US?  Who would take
the risk?  All electronic development will move overseas by the
threat of lawsuit.  New technologies will get developed there. 
At some point, even system repair moves there, or doesn't get done.
Who wants to take the risk of selling test equipment in the US?

As I mentioned, VEIL technology works on a 7200Hz luminance signal
added to the video field.  If a video system detects that, it is
not supposed to record it.  So imagine I am an LA cop, and I don't
want to be recorded the next time I beat up a Rodney King.  With
an LED flashlight modified to produce a 7200Hz luminance signal
broadcasting "don't record me", I can wield my truncheon without
worries.  Or perhaps I am a terrorist in Iraq, wishing to escape
observation from a US military camera surveilance system.  I buy
the same flashlight. turn off the cameras with it, and hide my
bomb or assassinate my target.  

Or I could build a very big 7200Hz flashlight and sit outside the
perimeter of a Hollywood movie set, shutting down the digital
movie cameras.  Let the MPAA enjoy a taste of what they created. 
They wouldn't have many options - all their cameras are from
overseas, and bought on the grey market, because their own
stupid law shut down the legitimate channels.  

My, I think this has turned into a flame.  Time for my meds ...
Ah, that's better!


So what does this all mean, and what can you do about it?  First,
learn more about the bill.  You can read more about HR4569 at 

http://static.publicknowledge.org/pdf/HR-4569-DTCSA-Analog-Hole.pdf
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/47939.html

Look up "analog hole", "DRM", "CGMS" and "VEIL" on Wikipedia.  You
can also go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation at www.eff.org
and follow the growing protest. 

The bill is being sponsored by the ranking members of the House
Judiciary Committee,  Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R) of the
5th Congressional District of Wisconsin, and John Conyers (D)
of the 14th Congressional District of Michigan.  They come up
for re-election this year.  A campaign contribution to the
appropriate opposing campaign ( D, R, G, L, or other), with an
explanatory note to all the campaings, would be a sincere way
to say "you are SO FIRED!"  

A letter to your own Congressional representative would help. 
This HR4569 crock of fertilizer may make it to the Senate, which
is why I am planning a meeting with Senator Gordon Smith's staff. 
Sen. Smith heads the Commerce committee, which will have a lot
of influence on whether this thing passes.

OK, so you may dislike Smith, maybe just because he is an "R".
But that doesn't mean we can't influence him to focus on the
concerns of Oregon businesses and citizens.  Besides lots of
video and measurement companies, we are the hub of the Open
Source universe.  If we can convince him of the value of, and
the constituency for, open source concerns, he might become a
good ally for us.  Single issue letters supporting open source
or opposing the ideas behind HR4569 might help make that 
happen.  A rule of thumb in politics is that a single written
letter approximates the opinions of 1000 constituents.   It 
costs about $4 per voter for Smith to run a campaign.  So in
some sense, a postal letter to Smith on this issue is worth
about $4000 .  So get writing!  Again, a polite well written
letter on paper in a stamped envelope counts for more than an
email or fax or phone call.  An office visit counts for even
more; the Senator has open meetings with constituents on
Thursday mornings.

If you have connections to Tektronix, or Intel, or some other
company that does measurement or video or bits, please make
your concerns known to cow-orkers and managers.  At the CEO
level, they probably don't have a clue about the connection
between this legislation and their future survival;  they might
just want to keep a few customers in Hollywood happy.  If they
realize that the future of their company and their job is at
stake, most CEOs value risk reduction and professional
survival more than they value slightly increased sales.  Help
shape their opinion before they get a call from a politician.

So, learn, discuss, write, and take action.


Again, I am posting this to the main plug list rather than
plug-talk because this approach was the consensus of the general
meeting last night, and threads have a way of getting hijacked
on the talk list.  If you think this is inappropriate for the
main list (and I am uncomfortable about it) we can move it back
to plug-talk, but enforce some discipline to keep the discussion
on-topic.

Keith Lofstrom  (keithl at keithl.com)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs


-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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