The FCC has given Hollywood permission to activate the "Selective Output Control" technologies in your set-top box. These are hidden flags that allow the MPAA to deactivate parts of your home theater depending on what you're watching.Full article here. Read it - it's interesting.
To summarise - and a lot of the acronyms are a ways over my head, so this is just my reading - it seems that, if you find yourself watching something about which the FCC is feeling particularly protective, the aforementioned FCC can reach its digital hands into your computer and switch off the output that connects it to to your DVR or DVD recorder. Theoretically, this is so that the MPAA can start releasing movies to TV earlier to compensate for dwindling cinema revenue, as people spend more time on the internet, On Demand and Netflix. Practically, it means the FCC is watching what you're watching and can extend those digital fingers to your TV any time it damn well pleases.
Commentary on this development will follow when I've come out from under my bed and stopped quivering.
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