[IP] more on Talk about HDMI

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@well.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 07:24:09 -0500
To: <dave@farber.net>, Ip <ip@v2.listbox.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Talk about HDMI

At 5:38 AM -0500 1/18/05, David Farber wrote:
>------ Forwarded Message
>From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>
>I'm already able to play back
>HD content from the Darknet in this way.  Life is good!  <g>  DLH]
>

Dave,

I don't doubt that Dewayne is able to play back content that originates as
high-definition television, but I doubt that any of this content qualifies
as "HD content."  So far as I can tell, every single instance in which
high-definition television content has been made available via BitTorrent or
other bandwidth-maximizing tools, that content has been drastically reduced
in resolution (commonly in the course of digital-to-analog-to-digital
conversion to MPEG or .avi files).

The resulting content may have originated in high definition, but it doesn't
qualify as "HD content" anymore.   This fact puts the lie to claims by
Hollywood that HD content is routinely or widely pirated over the Internet
merely by virtue of its being digital -- the digital originals, even though
already compressed, are far too large (much bigger, for example, than images
of DVDs, which one does occasionally find on the Internet).

Of course, once one reaches a certain age, it's harder to tell whether one
is looking at true HD content at normal viewing distance.  This factor may
explain the frequent exaggerated claims about whether HDTV content is
available in full resolution over the Internet.

--Mike Godwin
Legal Director
Public Knowledge

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