Content Cartel Makes Backroom DRM Deal

Content Cartel Makes Backroom DRM Deal: "We're hearing rumblings of an informal behind-the-scenes agreement between Hollywood greedmeisters and consumer electronics manufacturers, where the tinseltown moviemakers are vowing to hold off on any broadcast flag bullshit until 2010. The hated image constraint token (ICT), that crippling DRM flag that will automatically downrez HD video if non-HDCP-compliant outputs are used, is a required part of the spec for both Blu-ray and HD DVD players. Some in the blogosphere see this as a trojan horse, where the content cartel will get the HD players into consumers hands en mass and then slam-dunk full copy control on them once they've all invested in the crippled players. But we're thinking that 2010 is a long way off in techno-years, and by then the whole concept of playing content on physical media will be a quaint notion. Heck, by then, even noobs will be BitTorrenting 1080p."