Concert Recording To Be Disabled On iPhones

A patent recently filed by Apple details a methodology whereby, when you may be at a concert venue, the organisers of that concert may be able to signal to your iPhone that the actual process of recording the concert, either by video or audio, is not permitted during the event, and then it disables that functionality.

Hopefully only for the duration of the event.

Diagram from Apple Patent Extract

I’m certainly not going to encourage the illegal recording of these sorts of events, but really, don’t you think that this is just a little too Orwellian?

Besides, it’s also still just pissing in the wind: it doesn’t address the issue of those who use phones other than iPhones, or those who may be using straight out cameras.

While at this time this is only a patent application lodged by Apple, with no guarantees that it will ever become a production reality, is it an interesting potential use of technology?

Or maybe an interesting potential abuse of technology?