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Losing Control Of Your TV
It seems that the MPAA has had a chance to sit back and look at all the positive publicity that the RIAA has gotten lately and has decided to try to grab a little of the spotlight for itself.
Technology Review has a disturbing article about the Advanced Television Systems Committee Flag (“broadcast flag”) that the MPAA is pushing to have installed in all US televisions beginning July 1, 2005. The device has been approved by the FCC, and the MPAA can’t wait to start requiring its installation.
What this little gem of a device will do is to protect us from the evils of being able to make high-quality copies of shows for ourselves; If the flag is set, the TV will disable the digital outputs, allowing only analog outputs to be used. The author also speculates that the flag could be used to prevent the usual TiVO practices of commercial skipping and fast-forwarding.
Brilliant!
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