Someone please remind me why this is news again? Most providers have been requiring HDCP on a number of channels for years. One older Motorola box I have from Comcast won't output anything if the display doesn't support HDCP. My other, newer box outputs some channels but not others (and not the ones you would expect to be blocked - some bizarre channels like comedy central require hdcp but espn does not, for example). If you want additional proof that many providers already require hdcp on a variety of content just have a look at the discussions about the hauppauge colossus hdmi capture card over at avsforum.
On your comment about this being a bigger deal than the analog sunset for blu-ray because it affects existing hardware and they blu-ray analog sunset did not - you might want to have a re-read of your own article on the subject:
"Lest you think that this won't affect existing players, note that*after January 1, 2011, the manufacturers of Blu-ray discs will be able (at their option) to insert an Image Constraint Token into any Blu-ray disc. This is a sort of "digital flag" that will turn off the high-definition component video output in the player (effectively turning it into a low-resoluton 480i/576i output). The goal is to make sure that*all high-definition video will only be made possible through "secure" digital connections like HDMI."
