Wired News has published a Reuters article on the Broadcast Flag that appears to have been written without a moment's thought to the proposal's critics — indeed without any serious consultation with anyone who is even remotely skeptical about it. The piece says, basically, well, this will stop piracy, and the opponents are upset because people will have to buy new DVDs.
What Wired News misses by publishing the Reuter's piece instead of doing original reporting is that this won't stop piracy (as even the studios have admitted, in the plug-and-play cable proceeding), that it has nothing to do with buying new DVDs, that it makes a whole class of general-purpose open source software illegal, including code that's already in the market, and that it will give the companies who called home taping and peeing during commercials theft a veto over the design over DTV devices, including parts of your PC.
It also misses that fact that there is currently no problem with "theft" of Hollywood movies: these companies are making more money than they ever have — a situation that's obtained every year since 1959, and more particularily since 1984 when the VCR was legalized and not only failed to strangle the film industry, but rather more than doubled its income.
This is the shoddiest thing I've ever seen in Wired News. It's disgusting.
