The latest MPAA diatribe about Selectable Output Control is notable for two reasons. First, it utterly fails to demonstrate that anybody steals content through the analog hole or that giving the MPAA the ability to shut off both analog and protected digital outputs would have any impact at all on piracy. Second, by attacking Public Knowledge and specifically Harold’s integrity, it is a not-so-subtle effort to spin the debate over this waiver as “copyleft” Public Knowledge versus “reasonable” Hollywood, which only wants this itsy bitsy waiver so that it can provide the “pro-consumer” benefit of making movies available on video on demand a few weeks earlier than they are now.

We’ll address the first point when we file a response in the next week or so. I want to address the second.

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