UK petition for CableCARD (decoder) provision ?

[Musicman]

Am I right in thinking that in the USA the FCC have forced both cable & satellite TV companies to provide decoder cards to subscribers wishing to use their own Hard Disk recorders? TIVO USA call them CableCARDs.

If so, is there a UK petition to change the law to force Virgin & Sky to provide them? This would open up the market somewhat. Who, but Mr Murdock & Mr Branson, could argue against the reasonableness of such anti-monopoly leglislation?

[gazter]

Am I right in thinking that in the USA the FCC have forced both cable & satellite TV companies to provide decoder cards to subscribers wishing to use their own Hard Disk recorders? TIVO USA call them CableCARDs.

If so, is there a UK petition to change the law to force Virgin & Sky to provide them? This would open up the market somewhat. Who, but Mr Murdock & Mr Branson, could argue against the reasonableness of such anti-monopoly leglislation?

I seem to remember that there is already provision to force companies to open up their systems, but it is not enforced and not likely to be in the future.

(Sky could quite openly claim that allowing cam encryption through a pc, will open up their pay tv system to being cracked and the resulting mass service theft, they could cite the collapse of ITV Digital as a consequence of their pay tv encryption being cracked).