I'll go ahead and get my tinfoil hat out and dust it off. The new Xbox that Microsoft is rumored to unveil next month is said to have an ‘always-on’ connection, the way that our cell phones work now. And the patent that Microsoft filed last year allows the company to view how many people are watching and using the content and possibly shut down the content if it is deemed to be in violation of the license agreements.
I will agree that licenses should be honored. I would not agree to voluntarily put a console in my house with an always-on webcam broadcasting back to a source to make certain that I am staying legal at all times.
The answer to that, of course, is not to put one in my house (says the non-gamer).
And of course, it truly isn’t hard to take that setup and move it further than it is rumored to be at this time. The movie studios would love this kind of control over their content. Moving beyond that, our government would like to have this type of monitoring capability. To keep us safe.
</removing tinfoil hat>
