Atomictumor

Congress is trying to make the DMCA worse. 

If you’re into technology, civil rights, or screwing people over, you’ve probably got some opinions on the DMCA.  Designed by Congress to stop those evil crackers from getting around the protection on Popcap games, what started out bad for consumers and fair use in general is about to get a lot worse. 

As usual, Ars Technica has an excellent article about it:

To put it bluntly, the claims of the content creation industry do not add up. Here’s what the equation really looks like: Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 + analog hole legislation + the broadcast flag = zero Fair Use rights + pay multiple times for the same content. If you don’t like that math, it’s time to get in touch with your congressperson and senators.

Seriously, this isn’t geek stuff.  This is the right to own something.  That movie you used to get in a VHS tape and watch 100 times a day, well, pretty soon you’re going to be renting it.  Don’t like that idea?  Download the movie illegally, and go to jail.   This is evil, and this government is going to cram it down our throats, just like the last one did.

OK, bear me out here. 

Would there be a significant cost savings, or even a measurable cost savings, to purchase raw bandwidth and move forward that Muni thing I was talking about?  I think in the comments somebody made shady comments to the effect that somebody was trying to cloak and dagger their way into doing it, but bugger that, I’m more of a plow right through it kinda guy. 

Now, heres how I see it.  

I was playing with the idea of doing Wifi, but thats a fad.  Face it.  Its a fad.  Hotspots are great and super duper, but the idea of blanketing a town with internet coverage so that the minority of people in the town could have it just isn’t feasible.  That, and theres some questions as to the technical feasiblity of Wimax, which would be the most efficient way of kicking it around these mountains.  The idea of sticking a transmitter on top of the water towers is romatic, but no.  

So, sticking with wires, how do we deliver it to the end user?  Damnation, therein lies the rub, and the biggest reason to use some form of wireless… but I’m just not sure that wimax is a good idea.  What then?  Linked hotspots?