Cramping Japan's digital TV style

In a harbinger of things to come once the broadcast TV flag goes into effect here in the US, Japanese viewers seem a bit peeved by some of the new restrictions on taping digital TV broadcasts. In early April the NHK and the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters, a buncha private TV broadcasting companies, began airing their digital TV
programming with a new caveat attached: one copy each, please. The transmitted signals now only allow for a single copy and require a special user-identification card to watch their digital programs. Japanese viewers are livid and the companies implementing the changes received 15,000 complaints in the first week alone, saying that the new system gets in the way of their freedom to edit recorded programs on their PCs (we hope no one gets in the way of our plans to start editing Summer off of The OC). To the broadcasters, though, the issue is that since repeated digital copying doesn't reduce image or sound quality they're concerned about a booming black market in Japanese TV cropping up in the rest of Asia.