The BBC is looking to encode TV listing metadata and employ a compression algorithm to circumvent piracy, ad removal and illegal copying. According to a recent blog post by the EFF‘s Danny O’Brien, the group wants to get mandatory DRM onto digital TV receivers via a broadcast flag. In other words, a “public service broadcaster” wants to lessen the way we consume media by forcing manufacturers to limit product playing abilities.

While open source TV services like Boxee allow users to view programs over home networks regardless of the device, a broadcast flag would force all HDTV receivers to include content protection. For those of us who watch our programs online, this could pose a serious problem.

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