Old news - October 31st BD player mandates

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Over the years consumer electronic products have improved with advances in technology. In the United States one of the things that has helped the growth and wide spread adoption of new technology is government mandates and standards. For example if my memory is correct back on July 1st 1993 I think was the date that all TV’s manufactured after July 1st 1993 that were 13 inches and over were required to have a close caption decoder. There are several mandates and standards the US government has set over the years including AM, FM radio, NTSC broadcasting, etc. The most current mandate was March 1st 2007 in which all consumer electronics products that contain a NTSC tuner must also include an ATSC tuner before entering the US. So by law no company since March 1st 2007 is allowed to make a consumer device with only a NTSC tuner for the US consumer market, they must also include an ATSC tuner also in the product when a NTSC tuner is present. Such a mandate was needed in order to have the US move away from the NTSC broadcasting system alone with freeing up much needed spectrum for other types of communication. Thanks to the mandate low cost ATSC 480I TV’s can be purchased from places like Walmart for under $100. The ATSC tuner mandated added only about a $30 increase in price to most products. That $30 increase is falling every month.
I thought it was awesome news when I first heard that the BLU-RAY disc association has mandated that all BLU-RAY players streeting after October 31st must include a minimum of 256MB of RAM and other hardware requirements so that the player plays future BLU-RAY discs with the PIP feature. Also part of the mandate required that all BLU-RAY players streeting after OCT 31st that decided to include the optional Internet connection must include a minimum of 1GB of memory for BD-LIVE. More details about the original news article on March 23rd 2007 about the October 31st mandate can be read at the following link
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6427147.html?nid=2840

Ok that sounds great and some people interpreted the news story to mean all existing BLU-RAY players in production that do not meet the minimum hardware requirements are required to go out of production by October 31st in order to meet the mandate. I know that was my interpretation from the original article. I guess I was use to several government mandates over the years for consumer electronic products that had strict cut off dates. According to Wikipedia the mandate does not apply to existing players introduced on or before October 31st. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray
So the BLU-RAY disc association appears to have created a loop hole for manufactories. Basically it appears that any company that wants to make a profile 1.0 BLU-RAY player that supports only profile 1.0 can release a new player as late as October 31st and then continue to manufacture that profile 1.0 player for as many months or years that they want. So we could see several manufactories introduce several new BLU-RAY players on October 31st or before and continue to produce that player for as many years as they want. Now I understand why many BLU-RAY players coming in September and October have not announced profile 1.1 (PIP support).
The BLU-RAY disc association should have made a strict cut off date for the October 31st mandate. All BLU-RAY players that did not meet the required hardware requirements should have went out of production. This loophole in the October 31st mandate is going to hurt the BLU-RAY camp in 2008 since there will be some existing players being made in 2008 that do not support PIP and BD-LIVE. There is a format war going on and making loopholes in the October 31st mandate does not help win the format war.
Yes high quality Picture and Sound with a wider selection of movies is more important then PIP and BD-LIVE. At the same time I like watching extra features and would like to experience a few movies with PIP and BD-LIVE.