The Electronic Frontier Foundation has today published The Endangered Gizmos List, a collection of products and technologies — some facing litigation, some extinct as a result — all threatened by restrictive copyright laws and the aggressive litigation strategies of copyright-holders in the entertainment industry.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell calls TiVo “God’s machine,” and its devotees have been known to declare, “You can take my TiVo when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!” But suppose none of us had ever been given the opportunity to use or own a TiVo — or, for that matter, an iPod? Suppose instead that Hollywood and the record companies hunted down, hobbled, or killed these innovative gizmos in infancy or adolescence, to ensure that they wouldn’t grow up to threaten the status quo?

The list is a important reminder that fair use cannot be taken for granted: with the demise of DVD X-Copy, for example, a consumer’s ability to backup a copy-protected DVD is extremely limited. So too, if the FCC continues with its lockdown of broadcast rights to digital television, enhancements to future, computer-based TiVos may be impossible.

A legal climate conducive to innovation is one that maintains a healthy balance between copyright protection and creative and consumer freedoms. Sadly, this list appears to indicate that current laws are siding dangerously close to existing rights-holders, who are using them to oppress what could have been useful and legitimate inventions. To restore equilibrium, a clear message must be sent to both stiflers of innovation and elected legislators that current laws — and the ways they are being used — are unacceptable.