Summary
Originally, the big push to impose mandatory DRM in broadcasting and in cable and satellite television was based on the assumption that digital television, including HDTV, would be easier to “pirate” (to make infringing copies, that is) because it is a digital source. After a number of experts, including Public Knowledge, pointed out that digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions are easy, that assumption has faded, although it still informs the FCC’s broadcasting and plug-and-play regulations. Now that more people understand that analog content may be just as infringeable as digital content (and perhaps even more so, due to its smaller size when digitized), the proponents of mandatory DRM have begun to push in various forums for restrictions on analog interfaces, or even an abolition of such interfaces that would “close the analog hole.” Policymakers are unlikely to embrace closing the analog hole, however, so long as analog interfaces remain a major avenue for compatibility between older and newer consumer electronics equipment.
Analysis
Public Knowledges opposes attempts to close the analog hole, either through technology or regulation or both, because analog interfaces remain an important means of creating compatibility among consumer devices, and because the ability to sidestep digital-rights-management schemes through analog outputs may remain an important technique for exercising Fair Use rights and engaging in other lawful but unauthorized use of digital content.
