Exactly. The issue here is not a battle between a belief that consumers have the right to do whatever they want with whatever signal or device they possess and

Exactly. The issue here is not a battle between a belief that consumers have the right to do whatever they want with whatever signal or device they possess and the belief that consumers don't have that right. It's an issue of open vs. closed standards and ecosystems. The video game industry, and by extension consumers, have been demonstrably harmed for years by these sorts of control measures. Consider the ethics of (a) using the Wiimote to drive my set-top box and (b) getting DirecTV without paying for it. The situations are clearly different. The former drives innovation [1], the latter doesn't. [1]: http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-30-wiimote-hacks-of-the-web/ http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-30-wiimote-hacks-of-the-web/