[mythtv-users] CableCard???

[Brian Wood]

On Nov 13, 2006, at 2:23 PM, Viitasaari wrote:

> Lets say that the service providers succeed in providing an end-to-end
> encryption scheme and the hardware vendors succeed in providing  
> hardware
> to everyone who uses the service providers schemes.
>
> Now the question remains that if I payed for all my services and
> purchased all the proper hardware would that not give me the right to
> decrypt my system?
>
> This raises the question of whether it is illegal to attempt to break
> encryption schemes when you are paying to have it delivered and you  
> are
> paying for the hardware to display it.
>
> I think the only way this would stand up in court is if the service
> providers and the hardware vendors can prove that their content is
> private in nature.
>
> A/V streams from service providers is public in nature!
>


Sounds like you haven't read the DMCA. At least in the US the  
situation is absolutely insane. It is technically illegal for me to  
watch a DVD that I have paid for on a Linux system that I have paid  
for. It is also illegal for me to make an archival copy of a DVD that  
I have paid for to protect myself against my dog chewing up the  
original disk.

The content owners have simply bought off the legislators in order to  
get laws passed that go way beyond common sense, and I see no chance  
of this changing in the forseeable future.

The situation is simply nuts, but the carriers are scared of being  
sued by the content providers so they bend to their will. I'm sure  
they will get some form of their "broadcast flag" sooner or later, so  
buy what you can now :-)