The wonderful and wise Simson Garfinkel (whom I met at PopTech) devotes his latest column in MIT’s Technology Review to: Losing Control of Your TV. The latest anti-piracy move will prevent you from making high-quality copies of broadcast TV programs. And the new “broadcast flag” technology enables all manner of other restrictions. Here’s the lead:
In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set. Every TV sold in the United States will come equipped with an electronic circuit that will search incoming TV programs for a tiny electronic “flag.” The MPAA’s members will control this flag, putting it into broadcast movies and television shows as they see fit. If the flag is present, your TV will go into a special high-security mode and lock down its high-quality digital outputs. If you want to record a flagged program, you’ll have to do so on analog tape or on a special low-resolution DVD. Any recording will be limited to analog-quality sound. This security measure is not designed to protect the television from viruses or computer hackers—it’s designed to protect TV programs from you.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
This might be one of the more dramatic steps “in” a consumer’s house that a corporation has taken in a while. Sure, your mobile phone can transmit signals GPS-wise, and RFIDs are probably going to have a lot more power when they are mainstream, but having the actual ability to change how your television or recording devices ACT when you’re watching various programming – wow. I’m not even sure where to start with this. At least CSI is getting us all prepared for the GATTACA-ness that’ll be here sometime…. Sheesh.