The story in question: "The DVD War Against Consumers" on BusinessWeek.com

David H. Holtzman of BusinessWeek: You need to do some more research.

This guy has no idea what AACS does and I'm surprised this article was even published.  For starters, he needs to go to wikipedia.com and search for AACS . It has nothing to do with downscaling non-HDCP video outputs.  It is an advanced content sharing system that enables the exact functionality he is championing. It allows users to distribute the content of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray disc across multiple devices for personal use.  These copies are encrypted, so they can't be shared widely on download sites, but it enables much of what he complains is missing from these next-gen discs

There is a separate problem where some HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players may down-convert analog component video outputs, but this has nothing to do with AACS.

Mr. Holtzman states that Sony is going to shut down all of the players across the world because of the actions of one hacker who breaks a code. No company is going to shoot themselves in the foot like that; the customer outrage would devastate the company – the "Sony root kit incident" would seem like a hiccup in comparison.

Me personally, I'm only going to buy discs that allow content distribution over my home network. No Distribution = No Purchase. Simple as that. Unfortunately, I'm not sure this will be the case for the general public.  The demand is there for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and content protection won't play any more of a factor than it did initially with DVD.  Everyone with cave to the beautiful picture and amazing menus and those advanced early-adopters like me (who want to distribute content over a network) will be forgotten when market become massive.