The Electronic Frontier Foundation has compiled a list of gadget “species” under threat of extinction. Endangered gizmos highlights the grip industry holds over gadgets.

Concerned about technology that facilitates piracy, the entertainment industry is putting pressure for legal action over devices and technologies and this stifles innovation. Enforced industry standards on programs that control the free copying of a music file, for example, are to blame as well.

Also high up on the “endangered” category are devices that let people create, record, transmit, play back, and share any kind of digital content.

“We hope [the list] will turn more people into activists in these issues and that it will make more people realise that the copyright wars are not just about arcane flags and TV signals,” said Wendy Seltzer of the EFF.

Via Eyebeam reBlog Slashdot BBC News.