As reported this morning in the Washington Post, the FCC is proceeding with a rulemaking that would require that “personal computers and other consumer electronics devices contain technology to help block Internet piracy of digital entertainment.”
This heralds back to the early days of VCRs and (and tape cassettes), where established industry players tried to block technological innovation with regulation, law and law suits.
See this summary of the case filed by Universal and Disney against Sony when the BetaMax was unveiled (from the online TV encycopedia).
For other views on this topic, see Dan Gillmore’s Blog or MSNBC.
