Bob Alberti is president of network security company Sanction and a co-author of the Internet Gopher Protocol, which was a predecessor to the World Wide Web.

Yes!! Finally, someone who freakin' GETS IT!

The advent of digital-only television immediately struck me as the end
of television.  Once the signal is digitized it is CONTROLLABLE, and
once it is controllable it can be commoditized, and once it is
commoditized it can be criminalized.

First they digitize the signal, and the next thing they'll do is
"encrypt" it (more likely a simple scramble), and charge you to watch
it.  Charging you to watch means being able to track what you watch. It
also means being able to convict you if you watch something for which
you did not pay, under ever more onerous RIAA-backed legislation.

And that's it, game over. The days of being able to turn on the TV and
just watch whatever is available, in the privacy of your own home, are
done. The divides between the Have's and the Have-Not's gets that much
wider.

I have never had cable TV (well, okay, I subscribed for nine months in
order to watch the final season of 'Babylon 5' after it moved to cable),
and my family has been raised with an antenna on the roof of our house
and poor signal quality. And that's the way I like it, because TV is a
big waste of time anyway. I'm not buying a DTV box, and when the signal
goes out, I'll just stop watching TV.

At least THAT'S still legal. For now.


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Go here for the coupon
https://www.dtv2009.gov/