Why stop at copyright filters for music?
Let’s see now, the RIAA is on to something here. Just think of how many other organizations could benefit from filters on consumers’ private property. A quick, off-the-top-of-my-head list as I drink my morning coffee includes:
- Software-license checking filters: various helpful companies have already provided us with these of course, but a more joined up approach wouldn’t hurt. It would ensure that all the requisite permits are up to date and valid before you attempt to use your computer or connect to the Internet. It would be most unfortunate if a SWAT team were to kick down your front door on account of something silly, like being a day late with the annual subscription payment for your thumbnail viewer, or something.
- Movie filters. When the Hollywood studios and copyright holders see RIAA getting filters installed on users’ machines, you know that they will be demanding the same. And their filters will probably be bigger and better.
- Email filters: not the ones the user creates, but ones put in place by law enforcement agencies, just to be able to “educate” you should those agencies determine that you are engaging in activities or conversations that are liable to lead to any kind of nefarious activity. It’s pretty clear that we already have these out on the network, but getting across that last mile and into the home should increase accuracy and conviction rates educational effectiveness.
- Patent filters: all software activity on users’ machines to be analyzed for potential patent violation. (The fun they’ll have with that one.) Oddly enough, Microsoft is reported to be less than keen on this particular measure.
- Voting filters: helpful state analysis of your online voting behaviour, just to help you correctly discharged your democratic duty, you understand.
- Online banking filters: the Inland Revenue would hate for you to inadvertently be using any services that might be, shall we say, unhelpful to its cause.
- Adblocking filters: just in case you were tempted to install every brimstone beast’s favourite application. Oh, and also to make sure you haven’t accidentally un-installed the mandatory eyeball monitoring app, you know, the one that uses your web-cam to ensure that you are not breaking the terms of the websites you visit by not actually looking at the ads.
- Multi-user monitoring filter: this uses your other web cam to check that no more than two users are viewing a website on any given machine simultaneously. If a user wishes for more than two users to browse the web from his or her machine, the filter will advise that a multi-user licence is required.
If you can think of any more potentially useful filters I’ve missed. Feel free to add them below.