This would mean that two of the three golden ears testers would be RIAA members. Also, in the wake of last week's published accounts, RIAA members so intimidated and berated a member of the testing committee, who they blamed for the release of information, that the member resigned from the committee. The RIAA then insisted that all testing committee members, current and past, sign a strict nondisclosure agreement. It's possible that due to this fact there will not be representation from IT or CE companies on the testing committee, even though those companies have the most expertise in this area. Given their druthers, I think the RIAA would not choose to return later to restricted attack testing, but I expect that other SDMI members will insist on it.
More testing means more accurate data on the suitability of the technologies being evaluated.
I would expect this face-saving to continue at least through the next SDMI meeting in November, but not much further. But John McCain may shoot him down. No recession for free software Hackers scorn the theory that the economic downturn could hurt open-source software.