Andreessen: "Digital copy protection will never work"

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, has predicted the entertainment industry's push to force digital copy protection law onto video and TV is doomed to fail.

Andreessen said if the software industry has failed to eliminate piracy, the entertainment industry cannot expect to control file piracy and misuse.

He pointed to the software industry's failed attempts at controlling software piracy which should be an example for those wishing to include video, music and TV files under copy protection law.

The industry's efforts to push Congress into extending copy protection law onto all home entertainment devices would never work because if a computer can see, display and play a file it can also copy it, he stated.

Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, Andreessen told his audience that Microsoft's early efforts to defeat piracy were pointless until the market grew and software prices dropped according to siliconvalley.com.