Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » Analog Hole Bill Would Impose a Secret Law
So I emailed the company that sells VEIL [technology to embed watermarks in broadcast content] and asked for a copy of the specification. I figured I would be able to get it. After all, the bill would make compliance with the VEIL spec mandatory — the spec would in effect be part of the law. Surely, I thought, they’re not proposing passing a secret law. Surely they’re not going to say that the citizenry isn’t allowed to know what’s in the law that Congress is considering. We’re talking about television here, not national security.This is brilliant.
After some discussion, the company helpfully explained that I could get the spec, if I first signed their license agreement. The agreement requires me (a) to pay them $10,000, and (b) to promise not to talk to anybody about what is in the spec. In other words, I can know the contents of the bill Congress is debating, but only if I pay $10k to a private party, and only if I promise not to tell anybody what is in the bill or engage in public debate about it.
Worse yet, this license covers only half of the technology: the VEIL decoder, which detects VEIL signals. There is no way you or I can find out about the encoder technology that puts VEIL signals into video.
Not only is it offensive from a legal, regulatory, and political transparency perspective (why are lawmakers from Wisconsin and Michigan creating laws that reference technology protected by trade secret? To protect Big Content from technology and business model changes?), but it's also remarkably stupid security practice.
This watermarking technology is like encryption in the sense that its effectiveness depends on remaining uncompromised. After all, if someone figures out how to create phony, but legitimate looking watermarks, the system fails. If someone figures out how to remove watermarks without seriously degrading the underlying content, the system fails. There's no question of this technology being unbreakable -- it couldn't be. But the only way to know it's reliable (reliable enough for, say, a federal government to incorporate it into law by reference) is to have it kicked around. And not just by people willing and able to shell out $10K, but by all comers.
Is it possible that there isn't a single technology-savvy legislative assistant in all of DC?
