You make a good point, Cory, about the need to avoid the presumptive guilt of tools.

But I'm not sure the motion picture, television, recording and publishing industry groups that are pushing for "anti-piracy" legislation don't desire the suppression of many of the legal uses of these tools as well.

I've heard the argument made that if, for example, "anti-piracy" measures restrict the freedom of, say, an independent filmmaker to freely distribute her work, that this is an unfortunate, unintended but ultimately minor consequence of legislation which is neccessary to protect the funtioning of our information economy.

I wonder if the stifling of that filmmaker's work is incidental after all. It seems to me that in working towards the ends of fighting piracy, the entertainment industries may have found a terrific means of stomping out their smaller competitors as well. I can't imagine this makes them upset.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, Alex. Observe the rhetorical basis for the Hollings Bill and the BPDG: We must promote broadband! Internet growth is too slow! It will not accelerate until there is "High quality content" to bring the public to the Internet!

High-Quality Content, is, of course, what the Internet is already full of. But Hollywood doesn't believe it; they beat the HQC-drum in the early nineties, when the Information Superhighway shit was happening, arguing that the Internet would have to be redesigned with "protection" mechanisms for "content" or no studio would put its material online, and if that happened, no one would be interested in using the Net.

This, of course, was so much bullshit. Hollywood's blessed absence from the Internet gave rise to a decade of out-of-control innovation, with millions of writers, artists, designers, filmmakers and musicians taking it to the net, establishing new forms and new schools of creative expression.

Now, as to why Broadband Growth is stalled, I suggest that Congress turn its attention to the fucking telcos, who couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel. Anyone who's got broadband knows what a gargantuan pain in the ass it is to get a DSL loop activitated or convince your cable-company that your goddamned modem STILL doesn't work.

Let the FCC regulate telcos to eliminate the scourge of PPPoE and you'll be 3/4 of the way to removing the substantial barriers to entry for would-be broadband subscribers.

These aren't "screeners". Here are the definitions of the various types of source material used for pirated movie releases:
http://home.attbi.com/~abvcd/FAQ/abvcdfaq5...#What_are_screeners
The Star Wars vcd I saw a bit of appeared to be a Cam, although the release claims Telesync.