Steve Schultze once enjoyed the ability to record cable television content on the desktop computer in his Cambridge, MA home. But when he moved across the river to Boston, he was forced to switch to a digital cable service that encrypted most of its channels, greatly reducing the utility of his video recording gear.
Schultze, who now works for the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, writes that his experience is part of a broader trend. For more than a decade, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has tried to promote development of third-party set-top boxes—but poorly conceived strategy and cable company foot-dragging has largely foiled that agency.
A final nail in the open set-top box coffin could come soon. The FCC currently prohibits cable providers from encrypting basic cable channels in order to preserve compatibility with third-party devices. But these third-party devices have become increasingly rare, so the FCC is considering dropping the encryption ban altogether.
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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com
