Iria

Post-Christmas sales are a must for bargain hunters, but this year brings a new incentive to stock up on electronics: 2005 might be the last good year to get gizmos that aren't locked down.

As the music, television and movie industries move to make more media available online, they are also attempting to keep that content from showing up on peer-to-peer networks or being copied for friends.

They are looking to Congress for help.

Meanwhile, many consumer electronics firms are hobbling their own devices to protect themselves from potential lawsuits or, in the case of Apple, to make money from selling media to those who bought the company's hardware, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.

"We've already seen early examples: ReplayTV was taken off the market after being sued by the television industry," von Lohmann said. "We have never seen a PVR that has offered the same features, like the ability to send shows from one machine to another, automatically delete commercials and a very large hard drive capacity."
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Read More / Source: Wired News