Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

The Broadcast Flag just won't die. This time Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has snuck it into the proposed Net Neutrality legislation.

The Broadcast Flag pretends to be simply a way to control piracy, but in reality it will take any control over the viewing or recording of broadcast content away from citizens and give it to the broadcasters. If the Broadcast Flag existed 30 years ago VCRs would have been unusable.

Cory Doctorow provides the most succinct allegory I've seen:

It's as if Senator Stevens is trying to pass a law requiring the hood of every car to be welded shut when it leaves the factory, to make sure that no driver ever gets to change his own oil.

And that's exactly it. If this passes there will never be another TiVo, and who knows what technology we will be shutting the door on.