| | In the words of Deep Throat, "Follow the money."
The problem is "the analog hole," a way for broadcast and reception to escape the digital domain. The original mode of broadbcast, analog is not amenable to the many forms of coding and control that digital is. Anyone with a television set can receive so many direct broadcast stations, depending on their locale. Once TV is totally digital, that goes away.
Also gone is a (very unused) avenue of copying.
On a related note, why is the new US copyright law extended for 75 years? Because Mickey Mouse was about to expire. We cannot have that, so, among other things, the intellectual heirs of the intellectual heir of Ayn Rand can continue to own her works for two more generations.
The point is that the Republicans are not giving free digital converters to consumers (though they are). What they are doing is closing a loophole for telecom interests that do not want to pay for their own needs. The cost of the converter should be part of the service, right? But we cannot have people doing without because those people will not be "netizens."
See here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6029_7-6301061-1.html
and here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole
and here
http://www.eetimes.com/issue/fp/OEG20020920S0062
and here:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004106.php
and a bit farther to the left, read this:
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000113.html
(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 11/04, 6:00pm)
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