Cory Doctorow on Freeview HD SI encryption
Cory Doctorow has penned a decent piece for Guardian Technology (via @capn_b:boingboing), detailing the issues with the BBC’s petition to encrypt the service information tables for Freeview HD channels.
The thing which bugs me about this, and similar issues, is that the BBC’s public face to it all is always one of positivity: never ever talk about the downsides (i.e., what it will prevent people from doing), always focus on what positives remain (e.g., “you can burn a copy to Blu-Ray disc”—hooray?).
I expect this from politicians, because part of me knows that many of them don’t actually know any better. I know for a fact that the BBC does know better, and understands the issues perfectly.
And yes, a lot of this does come from the content producers, but the broadcasters’ stance in the US has shown that if you grow a set, they tend to be far more mouth than trousers.
