FCC Allows Blocking of Set-Top Box Outputs

bth writes with this excerpt of an AP story as carried by Yahoo: "Federal regulators are endorsing Hollywood's efforts to let cable and satellite TV companies turn off output connections on the back of set-top boxes to prevent illegal copying of movies. ... In its decision Friday, the agency stressed that its waiver includes several important conditions, including limits on how long studios can use the blocking technology. The FCC said the technology cannot be used on a particular movie once it is out on DVD or Blu-ray, or after 90 days from the time it is first used on that movie, whichever comes first."

Comments

PREDICTIONS ARE IN

[deathcow]

1) pirates unaffected
2) legit consumers annoyed and prevented from seeing their movie

Re:PREDICTIONS ARE IN

[bughunter]

3) legit customers resort to piracy
4) MPAA cites increasing piracy to justify further usability-sacrificing restrictions
GOTO 1)

(really, you could flatten this loop anywhere, but the only realistic place to break out of it is at step 4)

Re:PREDICTIONS ARE IN

[gandhi_2]

MPAA considered harmful.

Re:PREDICTIONS ARE IN

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

1) pirates unaffected

Its better than that. Pirates should be celebrating.
What this means is that the MAFIAA thinks they can do day & date releases on Pay-Per-View and in the theaters.

However, there will always be at least a handful of people with the means to capture such PPV transmissions and distribute copies on the net. So it means no more need for crappy camcorders in the theaters and the consequent risk of the recently legislated crazy-ass sentences for getting caught doing so. Now, the pirates can comfortably record new theatrical releases in the safety of their own homes and their hundreds of millions of friends on the net can all download new theatrical releases in HD-quality long before the movies are released on bluray.

Re:PREDICTIONS ARE IN

[Peach Rings]

Why is it any more OK for Apple to lock down a handheld media device than it is for the MPAA to lock down your set-top-box?

Re:PREDICTIONS ARE IN

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

I know this has been pointed out before, and I am myself tired of repeating this, but it's necessary:

1) It doesn't matter what encryption they use, the decryption key is on the device, so we'll get it eventally
2) The signal travels a long way. They can encrypt as many miles as they want, and they can encrypt the last mile, but the last 3 meters (the 3 meters from your TV to your eyes) can't be encrypted. So, eventually, the signal will need to be decrypted and there, it is vulnerable.
3) If they resort to putting mandatory DRM on your brain, and send the signal encrypted till it reaches your eyes, refer to 1) (the decryption key will be on your brain and we can get it).

What baffles me is why we are still trying to find technical workarounds to a commercial issue. People want to produce content. People want to watch content. Companies want to make money by being the middle man. This middle man has done nothing but move group 1 further and further apart from group 2. But regardless of how much they try, they won't prevent people from producing content, and won't prevent people from wanting to watch that content. We will eventually realize the artificial limitation here, remove the middle man, and find a way to pay the producers and get our content without *AAs.

To quote Megadeth: If there's a new way, I'll be the first in line, But it better work this time.

So, while all of you keep fighting each other over this moot point, I will go over to megavideo to watch Flash Forward S01E19.

Best DRM

[TheMeuge]

Federal regulators are endorsing Hollywood's efforts to let cable and satellite TV companies turn off output connections on the back of set-top boxes to prevent illegal copying of movies

Good. Turning off ALL the outputs will certainly prevent those movies from being copied. I've always thought that such an approach will be the ultimately successful DRM the companies are looking for.

Re:Wait...

[Anarki2004]

Excellent rebuttal. I retract my statement.