In the spirit of the 4th, I submit the AV Declaration of Independence from the Tyranny of … HDMI. Enjoy:)

When in the course of industry events it becomes necessary for AV people to dissolve the political bands which have restricted their devices from being connected to one another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal distribution of Video to which the Laws of Physics and of Ohm’s Law entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of the Industry requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all signals are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Audio, Video, and the pursuit of Time Sync. — That to secure these rights, Industries are instituted among Members, deriving their just powers from the consent of the employed, — That whenever any Form of Consortium becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the AV People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Laws, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Signals Safety and Distribution. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Consortiums long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that systems are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a short burst of copyright abuses and usurpations invariably results in a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Consortiums, and to provide new methods for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Companies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Governing. The history of the present HDMI Consortium is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Systems. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid industry.

It has refused to enforce its own Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the industry good.

It has allowed its Manufacturers to pick and choose the Laws of immediate and pressing importance in their operation and it has utterly neglected to attend to them.

It has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people who respect IP, requiring those people would relinquish the right of Representation, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

It has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Industry Experience, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

It has dissolved Analog methodologies repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness its invasions on the rights of video distribution.

It has erected a multitude of new Versions and Protocols, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

It has kept among us, in times of compliance, Standing Regulations without the Consent of our industries.

It has affected to render the Image Constraint Token independent of and superior to the Industry Power.

It has combined with other technologies to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our industry, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Regulation:

For cutting off our Displays with all Sources of the system:

For imposing Fees on our devices and cables without our Consent:

For transporting EDIDs to be lost before their full Recognition:

For abolishing the free System of distribution of non-copyrighted video to Neighboring devices, establishing therein Arbitrary system performance, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Systems:

It has abdicated the Industry here, by declaring Copy Protection while waging War against unprotected Content.

It has plundered our displays, ravaged our sources, burnt our interconnects, and destroyed the morale of our installers.

It has constrained our video Sources and taken Captive the signal flow to bear Arms against Systems, to become the executioners of their signals and to fall themselves by their Connections.

It has excited video format insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Hollywood Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all audio, video and connections.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury; continually placated with new versions of identical Tyranny. A Consortium, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free industry.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our HDMI brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by them to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the inequality of system performance in our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native resolutions and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common goals to disavow these usurpations of uncopyrighted content, which would inevitably interrupt our connections. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them Enemies in Distribution, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Audio Video Industry, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Companies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Companies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to HDCP, and that all political connection between them and the HDMI Consortium, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent individuals, they have full Power to distribute Video, transmit Imagery, contract AVNU Alliances, establish Connections, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent companies may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our AV Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

@AVPHENOM