ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Analog hole

Okay kiddo, let me explain what an analog hole is. Do you know how when we listen to music or watch movies, we usually use headphones or speakers to hear the sound? Well, the sound we hear is actually a digital signal, which means it is made up of numbers that our devices can understand.

Now, let's say someone wanted to make a copy of that music or movie without permission. They could use special software to try to copy the digital signal, but sometimes that doesn't work because the original creator of the music or movie might have put some protections on it.

That's where the analog hole comes in. You see, the sound we hear through our headphones or speakers is actually made up of analog waves, which are continuous and not made up of numbers like digital signals. Because of this, someone can use a special device called an analog-to-digital converter to convert the analog waves into a digital signal that they can then try to copy without any protections getting in the way.

So, the analog hole is basically a way for someone to bypass the digital protections put in place to prevent copying of music or movies by converting the analog waves into a digital signal. It's not very nice or legal to do this without permission though, so we should always respect the creators of the things we enjoy and pay for them if we can.