According to BoingBoing, the FCC has given Hollywood permission to activate the 'Selective Output Control' technologies in your set-top box. These are hidden flags that allow the MPAA to deactivate parts of your home theater depending on what you're watching. The FCC says that they're doing this because they believe that if they do so, the MPAA will start releasing first-run movies (the ones that are still in theaters) for TV. They say that Hollywood won't make these movies available unless they get Selectable Output Control because SOC will stop piracy. WTF?!

Yet another reason why the world needs hackers... Who else is going to remove this for us? Say what you want but there's nothing they can put into a device that can't be taken out, it's just going to be really hard!