The "analog hole" will keep coming back to haunt these DRM-proponents no matter what they do. Why? BECAUSE WE SEE AND HEAR IN ANALOG. The end of the signal chain for video and audio will ALWAYS have to be analog, so there will always be "hole".

"They say we can''''t turn off the analog output," Zitter notes.

Yeah that''''s consumer enablement alright!

Mr. Zitter loves his doublespeak. Black is white, up is down, and restricting consumers' rights enables them.

I recently purchased an HP Media Center PC - marketed as an HD-DVD system. They even threw in an HD-DVD movie. I paid a great deal of money for a 24" wide-screen HP monitor that could display movies in thier full 1080p resolution.

All I get is a black screen - "Enabled" by Mr Zitter's "Digital Consumer Enablement" system. The monitor doesn't support HDCP.

In hindsight, a monitor was available with the system that supported HDCP. It didn't support a 1080p screen resolution, so in order to play high definition movies, I would have had to give up the ability to play them in high definition. Not that anyone mentioned HDCP when I was buying the system. I asked the sales rep about it later, and he hadn't heard of it.

At least my video card definately supports HDCP. Apparently news broke a few months ago that many of the video cards out there that advertise support for HDCP, don't really support it. The chip set does, but the card doesn't. And no, they can't be upgraded, flashed, or given a new driver.

There are now programs out that will enable a consumer like me to bypass Mr. Zitter's "Digital Consumer Enablement" system. I intend to use them. Not for piracy, but as the only way to watch my paid-for movies. If they're "defective by design", then I have no qualms about bypassing the defect.

I also need to make backups. High-definition movies sell for two or three times the price of older DVDs. You don't need to buy many before you have a significant investment - one that insurance companies won't cover. An off-site backup is simple common sense.

Another reason is for protection againt encryption key revokation. Bypassing AACS was reportedly much easier than cracking the encryption on the old DVDs. The AACS people knew that it was only a matter of time - why else include the ability to revoke keys for specific players and movies? With the very real possibility of my player or movies being reduced to scrap in response to a crack, I need the ability to remove the encryption altogether.

If this seems self-serving for the hackers, well, tough. I haven't pirated any HD movies and I don't plan to, but key revokation is still a real threat.

Finally, another reason is to protect against the format being made obsolete. Should HD-DVD disappear in favor of Blu-Ray (or a third format), I need the ability to transfer my paid-for movies to that format.

If Mr. Zitter wants to "do away with the term DRM", that's fine. Honest folks will be doing away with DRM itself, not the term.

"DCR," or Digital Consumer Restriction might be more apropriate name, becase that''s what it does. RESTRICT, people from free use of content.

No matter DRM is tried to disguise, fact that it''s BAD idea don''t change.

It doesn't matter what anyone calls it. The technology being described is still a lousy attempt to take away consumers' rights.

Consumers should be able to buy a movie, and watch the same movie on their iPod, their TV, their laptop, etc. without having to pay each time for the privilege of doing so.

See www.eff.org/corrupt/ for more info. Don't let the entertainment industry try this at home.