With its broadcast flag defeated in (1) court, because a court ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate digital devices, and in (2) Congress, because Congress refused to take up the RIAA and MPAA's fight to have the FCC regulate digital devices, everyone thought that the content cartels had learned their lessons.

Not so much.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has copies of draft legislation that would make it illegal to manufacture any analog-to-digital device that does not allow DRM restrictions to be placed on it. EFF refers to this as the "analog hole," since analog devices cannot, by their nature, be restricted in their use in the same way that a TiVo or an HDTV can, since the latter are digital devices. VCRs, cassette players, and non-digital televisions dabble in analog formats; that is, formats that use the properties of electrical or magnetic impulses (frequency and amplitude, e.g.) to store and transmit data. In this way, people can transfer copies of old VHS tapes to their computers by using some device that turns the analog signal into a digital signal (a signal that uses only electrical impulses themselves and not any properties of those impulses to store and transmit data; the impulse is either on or off, 1 or 0, with none of this amplitude or frequency stuff). A digital signal can then be stored on a device that stores digital information, like, oh, say, a computer hard drive, a CD, or a DVD. Up until now, Hollywood had no way of regulating analog-to-digital transmissions. But, with this legislation, they would have complete control over analog-to-digital devices.

No device that did not respect some sort of DRM scheme would be allowed to be sold. And guess who would decide on the DRM scheme? Yes, kids, your friends at RIAA and MPAA would decide on the DRM scheme. And if you think it won't be the most restrictive scheme possible, a scheme that goes way beyond the bounds of copyright law, you'd be kidding yourself and also possibly living in another universe.

The RIAA and MPAA's whole business model now is to be as restrictive as humanly (or technologically) possible. This means locking down content so that you can only view it or listen to it in exactly the way the MPAA or RIAA want you to view it or listen to it. If they don't want you to fast-forward, you won't be able to fast-forward. If they don't want you to be able to save the content for viewing later, you won't be able to save it for later. If they don't want you to be able to copy the content to a CD or DVD for your own personal use, you won't be able to do that. You will do only what record or movie industry executives want you to do. Not only will you like it, but you'll keep coming back for more, because the companies that constitute the RIAA and MPAA essentially have monopolies on content.

[Via Boing Boing, of course.]