Bad Copy Protection Required
Oh, great. Another piece of bad legislation. This one, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA -- I think they want this to have an unmemorable name), would require that electronic devices must implement government-standardized copy protection.
Good luck creating those standards, folks. How do you propose to prevent copyright infringement while not preventing legally-allowed fair use? How can you tell whether I'm making a backup copy for myself or a copy for my friend? Tie the content to my device? What if I loan my copy to a friend (which is legal)?
I can appreciate the desire to protect copyright. But I have a really bad feeling that, like the DMCA, this could result in overly-restrictive laws that reduce the civil liberties of media consumers.
Have a look at Declan McCullagh's Wired News article