I couldn’t believe when I read Cory Doctorow summary of the broadcast flag Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) is proposing. Although it have rejected by the US Congress, they are bring this to FCC.
The Broadcast Flag is a signal embedded in a digital television signal. If it’s set to “true,” the receiving device is supposed to restrict the distribution of the program in which it’s found; if it’s set to “false,” the receiver is supposed to let you do anything you want with it.
Via JoiitoRead the article carefully and it sound so surreal. Among the things, BPDG is proposing to (1) ban open source because it will allow people to modify their set to bypass the “protection” and (2) require Hollywood permission to make devices.
I mean, how much control freak can they be? Obviously they have no clue how fast their so-called protection can be hacked open source or otherwise. And the other proposal is making Hollywood into an authority for all entertainment device.
Read more here:
Lawrence Lessig on broadcast flags
EFF Oppose “broadcast” flags
ps: Why is this a problem for a guy in Singapore? Everything! If this gets through, you can expect big changes in the HDTV you buy everywhere.
