Before I comment, please realize that this subject upsets me, and my reply will be biased in that regard. I also consider this subject to more of a casual conversation, as opposed to my typical posts. Therefor, I will use speculations as part of my reply.
'Pirating' has always existed. No technological measure has ever prevented real pirates from pirating, when there was a high demand for the material to be pirated. It's a part of doing business. The laws of copyright provide strong protection to the copyright holders. But it's never enough to the companies typical of the MPAA and RIAA. The studios and record companies have rarely demonstrated competence in these regards. They have systematically and aggressively tried to control and/or eliminate almost every new technology as it has appeared. Remember when they tried to get radio banned? Then tape recorders? Then VCRs? Then MP3 players? Now they are actively trying to get all sorts of flags enabled to remove ability to record from the radio without absurd restrictions, flags on DVR recordings to control when, or when you can, how long they can exist, etc. The blocking of the HD output from the analog outputs is just another idiotic move in a long history of idiotic moves. Fair use rights be damned. Copyright is limited in scope to both parties(consumers and copyright holders), and it supposed to be on a balance of compromise[research this area of history and law]. Remember, copyrights/patents were not enacted from the perspective of giving people/companies a new way of profit, they were enacted to promote the creation of new material, for the benefit of society. But little things like balance and fair use, don't seem to be the concern of anyone today except for the consumer, whom ironically, can not even seem to vote enough people in political office that stand for the consumer, since apparently other motivations not related to what citizens want, appears to be more important to many elected officials, when large/rich corporations get involved. How else could a blatantly bad law like the DMCA get enacted? A law that in effect, removes many fair use rights that you are granted under copyright law, by way of a legal loophole. It might seem extreme, but so far as I can tell, "F*ck the consumer!" appears to be the motto that most of these companies live by.
-Chris
