Snip from an op-ed I filed for the New York Times:
It wasn’t always like this. Decades ago, audiocassette and videocassette recorders gave consumers the power to copy audiotapes and videotapes – a power previously reserved for a locked world of retailers and distributors.
The 1984 Betamax case, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that technology companies aren’t liable for copyright infringement when people misuse their products, encouraged still more innovation. There was a flood of gadgets that enabled us to copy things, including personal computers, CD burners and TiVo.
Since then, the entertainment industry has put pressure on electronics manufacturers to limit the consumer’s ability to make copies. And as a result, many of the tens of thousands of products displayed last week on the Vegas expo floor, as attractive and innovative as they are, are designed to restrict our use.
reg-fre Link to “Gadgets as Tyrants.”
(Many thanks to the EFF’s Fred Von Lohmann for invaluable insight).
And, oddly, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has an op-ed on the same page — it’s a breezy read about “municipal gun-ownership ordinances and why they’re a good idea.” Go check it out: Link.