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MPAA Asks Again For Control Of TV Analog Ports
suraj.sun passes along this excerpt from the Consumerist:
"The Motion Picture Association of American wants to rent movies to TV viewers earlier in the release window, but they don't want anyone potentially streaming that video out to other appliances. That's why last week they went back to the FCC to once again ask for the power to disable analog ports on consumer television sets. This capability is called selectable output control or SOC, and the FCC banned it back in 2003. SOC would allow 'service operators, such as cable companies, to turn off analog outputs on consumer electronics devices, only allowing digital plugs' such as HDMI. The MPAA is arguing that if they could directly turn those plugs on and off, they could offer more goods to consumers."
When is the MPAA and RIAA going to be broken up as a cartel? They all price match each other, control pricing, and even sue as a group.
It's a perfect cartel. I wonder if they like OPEC? Probably.
The problem with that is, *all* sets will be of that type, or people who buy new devices would complain that their device is supposed to be new, yet they're still locked out of whatever. A few years later, they won't release any content without the anti-analog flag. At which point old TV sets won't work, (again,) and grandma won't have access to important information about hurricanes and stuff.
If the anti-analog flag is there, many people will want to use it on everything because they won't consider the negative effects. It's just human nature.
Actually, not everyone. I tried using HDMI for everything and discovered that I was getting lots of audio dropouts. So I ended up switched back to the lovely component video which works just fine, TYVM.
An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
For the person who chooses not to consume pirated content, the ideal is a world where producers are maximized
However, the way to maximize producers isn't necessarily a broader scope of copyright. Without a meaningful right and ability to make fair use and other unregulated uses of a copyrighted work, a lot of producers can't produce due to copyright restrictions on derivative works.
At the point when "content providers" (I really fucking hate political incorrectness...) reach into my home, and disable features on a device which I own; I feel compelled to wish someone would kill them until they are dead.
Really, the FCC has no business interfering with my usage of my communications technology until that usage interferes with some medium they regulate.
Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, etc, can kiss my fucking ass if they ever get the power to do this, I will stop buying DVD/Blu-Ray releases, cancel my subscription to DirectTV and Comcast, smash my HDTV on the doorstep of the local BestBuy and take a shit on it. I will then use multiple computers/servers spread around the globe to pirate every fucking thing I can get my grubby ex-consumer neo-pirate hands on, even if it means going to jail.
Some causes require martyrdom to see the goals come to fruition.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Really, the FCC has no business interfering with my usage of my communications technology until that usage interferes with some medium they regulate.
Without the FCC's interference, "content providers" would already be able to use the communications technology that you willfully purchased that supports their disabling the analog out on your devices at the providers' whim.
It's the FCC saving you from the providers. You already surrendered to them.
Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."