A perspective of DRM on TV broadcasts
Tip ’o the hat to Ars Technica:
Although it looks like the content owners have largely shifted to grudging acceptance, the EFF was happy to compare their current silence with the threats they made when pushing for the adoption of the broadcast flag. One MPAA representative suggested that premium content would be withheld from television, while a Viacom executive said that his company would simply refuse to provide any HD content.
What’s changed? For starters, the movie business has wound up with a huge piracy problem that has nothing to do with television and a lot to do with its own supply chain. Digital copies of films in progress have leaked, digital cameras have been smuggled into theaters, and DVDs and Blu-ray discs have been counterfeited and cracked. With all of that going on, most people who might be interested in pirating a film have already done so by the time it winds up on the TV airwaves.
I’m hesitant to suggest that DRM on broadcast television in the US is dead and buried, but it’s at the very least in hibernation, and we can only hope that the situation both contagious and prolonged.
