HDCP is bad news (updated)

In my daily read today I came across this disturbing article at CrunchGear entitled MacBooks enter a golden new age of anti-piracy cruft: HDCP for all.

I’ve been crossing my fingers, but expecting this to happen for a while now.  HD video content is protected with 128-bit, encrypted, High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) technology to ensure that only authorized devices can play the content.  This means that you won’t be able to play protected HD content without an “authorized” display and MANY HDTVs are not going to work. 

In the past, this really only meant that you were out of luck if you were using a Blu-ray or HD DVD player with an inexpensive HDTV.  But now, Apple’s inclusion of DisplayPort on the MacBook has extended this content protection to computer screens and TVs.

Looks like my days of renting movies on the iTunes store with my Mac Mini and playing on my HDTV are numbered.  Let’s hope my current Mini continues working without the dreaded “This movie cannot be played because a display that is not authorized to play protected movies is connected” message,

Update: Ed Sutherland over at Cult of Mac has posted: “MacBook Owners Enraged As Apple Blocks Some Displays“