Member Avatar for happygeek

The only clever thing about this is the acronym, PERFORM.

This bill has been introduced in the US Senate again, following its defeat in committee back in April last year. Hopefully it will suffer the same fate again.

When will TPTB learn that they just cannot dictate the pace and direction of technology, and legislate to hamstring technological advances which powerful lobbyists dislike? PERFORM wants to force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers to provide measures to prevent listeners from recording audio broadcasts. The bill does not apply to over the air radio, funnily enough.

I am not for copyright infringement, but random legislative acts which will be all but unenforceable anyway, given the technology out there, seem a monumental waste of time and money...

Go on, shoot me down in flames :)

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The points raised by , and reflect two durable tensions: attempts to legislate technical behavior, and the collateral harm heavy-handed protections inflict on legitimate users. Below is practical context for rights holders and platform operators that complements the discussion without re-stating the thread's specifics.

Technical reality: there is no foolproof way to stop copying once content reaches a user device. Encryption, platform DRM (hardware-backed keys, secure containers) and ephemeral streaming tokens raise the bar, but do not eliminate analog capture, OS-level recording, or determined circumvention. Forensic watermarking and audio fingerprinting are more realistic enforcement tools because they preserve user convenience while enabling traceability. Server-side approaches (streamed-only content, limited-duration access, server-side personal lockers) reduce distribution of raw files but increase infrastructure and licensing complexity.

Practical remedies and tradeoffs: a combined strategy works best. Rights holders should prioritize clear, commercially viable licensing; implement fingerprinting/watermarking; require reporting and auditing from platforms; and use targeted enforcement (injunctions, takedown notices) rather than technology mandates that break interoperability. Platforms that focus on better user experience and fair pricing reduce incentives to circumvent protections. A final caution: laws that force specific technical controls risk disadvantaging smaller services, fragmenting standards, and slowing innovation — a predictable outcome that has repeated in previous digital-content debates.

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Member Avatar for 'Stein

When will TPTB learn that they just cannot dictate the pace and direction of technology, and legislate to hamstring technological advances which powerful lobbyists dislike?

Agreed fully.

Oh, did I mention my libertarianism? ;)

Member Avatar for John A

Copy protection features are unavoidable in some cases, such as buying music of major record labels, or other high-quality content. However, I think it should be discouraged as much as is humanly possible. It causes more problems to the people who are actually trying to use the content for legitimate reasons, and the pirates use cracks and other such devices to get around the copy-protection, simply making it hard and only for the consumer.

I can't wait for this to fail.

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