This is bad… very bad for us. I don’t see how this can be a good thing at all for the average consumer. The FCC has granted Hollywood and it’s cronies the MPAA full control over what you can watch now basically via SOC or Selectable Output Control. They can effectively flip a switch and disable your analog outputs on products that you purchased with your own money. So now we ‘own’ even less, and our rights are eroding away even more now. 

They claim it’s to combat piracy, but what’s to stop someone from setting up an HD camcorder in front of their TV and recording the content then releasing it that way? Nothing at all…

They claim that this will allow consumers to see movies sooner, somehow that doesn’t make sense to me. They claim that we will be allowed to see movies on our TVs that are still in the theaters, I don’t believe that at all. Once this starts happening, if it does, I can see the MPAA claiming that they’re aren’t making any money because people won’t be going to theaters, so of course they’ll either raise ticket prices or they’ll stop letting us watch it on TV, but yet they won’t give up control of SOC.

Supposedly they’ll shut off your analog ports for a 90day period or window, my question is what’s to stop them for doing it when they feel like it? What’s to stop them from saying ‘we forgot’ to turn it back on?

My HDTV does have HDMI on it, but if you were any early adopter that only has component you’re screwed, you won’t be able to watch because your outputs will be turned off.  I have another HDTV as well, a small one for my kids, it’s only 19”, but it’s fine for them. It does not have HDMI, so it’s about to become truly obsolete now isn’t it?

In the end we’re going to end up paying more for less, at least paying more for less freedoms….

 

 

[Via Gizmodo, ARS, Wired, BoingBoing]