Taping/recording/archiving of any kind will be technically impossible and a Federal crime.

It will now be a Federal crime for me to tape “Lost” for my wife when she’s working late.

If I wish to tape new Battlestar Galactica series because I’m busy, I’m just SOL. It will be impossible and illegal to record any TV broadcast or signal in any way at any time for any reason.

That about sums it up.

So, there really is NO reason at all to buy an HDTV. In fact, I think it’s time to boycott TV altogether. If 20 or 30 or 50 million Americans would boycott both TV manufacturers and Hollywood, they’d have to stop interfering with our fair-use rights.

The cable/satellite providers should have banded together and told Hollywood to, ah, shove it. After all, Hollywood needs the “distribution channels” more than the cable companies need content. Just as with OPEC, if the consumers band together we can dictate both price and functionality.

Instead, the masses continue to much contentedly as part of the great bovine herd. Before my 4 year old hits puberty “freedom” will be something only her parents and grandparents remember.

So, basically, through strong-arm tactics and bend-over by the FCC, the “Betamax” decision has been de facto overturned.

One day Americans will wake up and realize you don’t need TV, you don’t need movies, you don’t need music. You can live without them. Then we’ll have the pleasure of watching one network, studio and record company after another go Chapter 13.

They’re killing the golden goose. In fifty years, TV will simply have disappeared. That’s my prediction. Maybe sooner. I hope so.