The Motivation

It's related to a lawsuit I've filed with the help of the EFF against

the US government to reform Section 1201 of the DMCA. Currently, Section

1201 imbues media cartels with nearly unchecked power to prevent us from

innovating and expressing ourselves, thus restricting our right to free

speech.

Have you ever noticed how smart TVs seem pretty dumb compared to our

phones? It's because Section 1201 enables a small cartel of stakeholders

to pick and choose who gets to process video. So, for example, anyone is

allowed to write a translation app for their smartphone that does

real-time video translation of text. However, it's potentially unlawful

to build a box, even in the privacy of my own home, that implements the

same thing over the HDCP-encrypted video feeds that go from my set top

box to my TV screen.

This is due to a quirk of the DMCA that makes it unlawful for most

citizens to bypass encryption – even for lawful free-speech activities,

such as self-expression and innovation. Significantly, since the

founding of the United States, it's been unlawful to make copies of

copyrighted work, and I believe the already stiff penalties for

violating copyright law offer sufficient protection from piracy and theft.

However, in 1998 a group of lobbyists managed to convince Congress that

the digital millennium presented an existential threat to copyright

holders, and thus stiffer penalties were needed for the mere act of

bypassing encryption, no matter the reason. These penalties are in

addition to the existing penalties written into copyright law. By

passing this law, Congress effectively turned bypassing encryption into

a form of pre-crime, empowering copyright holders to be the sole judge,

jury and executioner of what your intentions might have been. Thus, even

if you were to bypass encryption solely for lawful purposes, such as

processing video to translate text, the copyright holder nonetheless has

the power to prosecute you for the "pre-crimes" that could follow from

bypassing their encryption scheme. In this way, Section 1201 of the DMCA

effectively gives corporations the power to license when and how you

express yourself where encryption is involved.

I believe unchecked power to license freedom of expression should not be

trusted to corporate interests. Encryption is important for privacy and

security, and is winding its way into every corner of our life. It's

fundamentally a good thing, but we need to make sure that corporations

can't abuse Section 1201 to also control every corner of our life. In

our digital age, the very canvas upon which we paint our thoughts can be

access-controlled with cryptography, and we need the absolute right to

paint our thoughts freely and share them broadly if we are to continue

to live in a free and just society. Significantly, this does not

diminish the power of copyrights one bit – this lawsuit simply aims to

limit the expansive "pre-crime" powers granted to license holders, that

is all.

Of course, even though the lawsuit is in progress, corporations still

have the right to go after developers like you and me for the notional

pre-crimes associated with bypassing encryption. However, one

significant objection lodged by opponents of our lawsuit is that "no

other users have specified how they are adversely affected by HDCP in

their ability to make specific noninfringing use of protected content

… [bunnie] has failed to demonstrate … how "users 'are, or are

likely to be,' adversely affected by the prohibition on circumventing

HDCP." (from Opposing Comment of Digital Content Protection, LLC

Regarding Proposed Class Four, Regarding a Proposed Exemption under 17

USC 1201). This is, of course, a Catch-22, because how can you build a

user base to demonstrate the need for freedoms when the mere act of

trying to build that user base could be a crime in itself? No investor

would touch a product that could be potentially unlawful.

Thankfully, it's 2018 and we have crowd funding, so today I'm launching

a crowd funding campaign for the

NeTV2 in the hopes of

rallying like-minded developers, dreamers, users, and enthusiasts to

help build the case that a small but important group of people can and

would do more, if only we had the right to do so. As limited by the

prevailing law, the NeTV2 can only process unencrypted video and perform

encryption-only operations like video overlays through a trick I call

"NeTV mode". However, it's my hope this is a sufficient platform to stir

the imagination of developers and users, so that together we can paint a

vibrant picture of what a future looks like should we have the right to

express our ideas using otherwise controlled paints on otherwise denied

canvases.

Find out more about the NeTV2 at the Crowd Supply crowd funding site; or if you think reforming

the DMCA is important but digital video is not your expressive canvas,

consider supporting the EFF directly with a

donation. Together we can reform

Section 1201 of the DMCA, and win back our fundamental freedom to

express and innovate in the digital age.