[mythtv-users] FCC will allow encryption of basic cable, offers measures to protect open access

[Ronald Frazier]

On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 11:22 PM, Ben Kamen <bkamen at benjammin.net> wrote:
> http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/15/3506030/fcc-allows-basic-cable-encryption-protects-consumers-open-access

I saw that on slashdot yesterday. It's pretty much crap in my eyes.
The 2 concessions are garbage. A box that is free for only 2 years and
then you've got to pay, or a software solution that will only work for
certain systems and only if the vendor pays a licensing fee. So their
concession is that they get to make more money? That's laughable.

And it says smaller providers are exempt from these restrictions. I
take that to mean that they are free to encrypt the signals while
giving nothing back in return. WTF? How about if you can't meet the
full mandate then you don't get permission to encrypt?

" NCTA applauds the measure for hastening the industry's transition to
an all-digital framework and shielding providers from cable theft."
Huh? Hastening the transition to all-digital? Hasn't comcast already
done this and encrypted everything but OTA channels? So there's a big
problem of "cable theft" where people steal ONLY the free publicly
available channels? I'm not quite sure what's being stolen there.

Eventual fees aside, the "network-connected converter box" does sound
kind of interesting. Sounds like a device that would decrypt the
encrypted signal and just send an unencrypted IPTV stream within the
household. That could be cool, but I'm probably just being naive in
assuming that it will truly be THAT open.


-- 
Ron Frazier