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Dolby Buys MIT's DTV Vote for $30 Million

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the something-wacky-going-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "MIT's campus newspaper, The Tech is reporting that the university will be receiving $30 million from Dolby Laboratories. This payment is in return for MIT's vote on the "Grand Alliance" committee responsible for choosing the audio standard for digital television (DTV). Dolby also appears to have paid off Zenith, another committee member. The professor representing MIT on the committee stands to receive $8 million personally. But here's where it gets truly odd. After dutifully voting for the Dolby standard, MIT attempted to collect on the bribe, but Dolby refused to pay. So, MIT sued to collect. In the end, MIT and Dolby settled out of court. Says The Tech, "There's clearly a conflict of interest," [MIT's Jack] Turner, [associate director of the Technology Licensing Office] says, but, "it can't be avoided. MIT's reputation as being pure... in its academic evaluation of things is very important." Yeah sure."

8 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Makes you wonder... by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...how much money the MPAA has earmarked for bribes to get the signal encrypted.

    --
    0 1 - just my two bits
  2. The FCC is bungling DTV by dgp · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From DailyWireless:

    "It's lucky 3G spectrum wasn't available earlier in the United States or cell carriers would be dropping like flies. The bungled DTV system saved their ass.


    The FCC assigned a royalty sharing organization, ATSC, to deliver a "unified" Digital Television system. But ATSC had no motivation to use the improved European-developed COFDM DTV system now the world-wide DTV standard. Unlike ATSC, it works. You can get it free over the air or in a bus. I believe former FCC director William Kennard is to blame. He didn't want to slow down the "lucrative" 3G auctions. Now we're stuck with a broken DTV system, the VHF auctions are delayed (again), and everyone lost...except the cellular carriers.


    In the UK, all you need is a $99 box with rabbit ears. US broadcasters are stuck. They may eventually be forced into PPV and soft porn since only rooftop antennas can pick up ATSC. The FCC let this happen. It's criminal negligence."

    1. Re:The FCC is bungling DTV by davegust · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's fine to sit around and complain about the current state of DTV rollout, but I think it's unfair to say the FCC bungled it. DTV is a classic chicken and egg problem. No one want's to buy set without content. No one wants to broadcast without viewers. No one wants to make equipment without buyers. One can argue that we'll never want better picture quality so why the government push, but the transition to digital would have happened anyway. Without the ATSC standard, what we would have gotten was our over-the-air analog TV system would have slowly died, replaced by a hybrid satellite/cable system that is not free, and lends itself to monopoly given the high cost of entry. No more local TV news. More nationalization of commerce due to restricted access to local advertizing. Standards are important, and ATSC is the most advanced digital TV standard in the world. Manufacturers, broadcasters and viewers are finally starting to realize the benefits in 2002 with the majority of network prime time available in HD, and 85% percent of homes within DTV boradcast areas, and nearly all major cable companies now committed to HD distribution within 6 months. My friends are starting to purchase equipment based on my experience as an early adopter two years ago. They love the picture quality - better DVD, and MUCH better than satellite or digital cable.

  3. How much?!? by natron+2.0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is outrageous! They gave them that much money because they voted for thier product? Is Dolby Labrotories that concerned about competition? Last time I checked they pretty much had market cornered with thier audio playback standards, why wouldn'e anybody vote for them?

    --
    [n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
  4. Re:bribery! by siskbc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Still guess we can't grumble as university students of today are tomorrow's politicians.

    Well, I don't think MIT turns out too many politicians - they turn out exclusively scientists and engineers. If it was politicians, I wouldn't care - we know they're a bunch of scoundrels - but what is truly frightening is that the ethics of scientists are supposedly held in higher regard than those of politicians. "Bias" is a much dirtier word in science than in politics. So to have MIT students see their advdisors and teachers getting rich off of graft is a very sad thing indeed.

    One more reason I'm glad I didn't go to MIT for grad school.

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  5. Similar issues during DVD spec votes... by nedron · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Dolby was accused of similar tactics during the time the DVD spec was being defined and ratified. That's allegedly why DTS (a better codec than DD) was locked out of being a primary alternate to PCM tracks on DVDs.

    I've seen people in the theatrical sound industry rakishly refer to Dolby as the "Microsoft of film audio".

    --


    * As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
  6. How HDTV standards are chosen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let me tell you a story... I live in Brazil. Brazil sheduled for the middle of 2002 the date to choose wich HDTV standard it will adopt (the american, european or japanese). The big TV stations from Brazil tested all tree against every possible thing: cable transmition, air transmition, ghosts from reflection, moving targets (inside a bus, a train, etc...). NO OTHER COUNTRY DID THIS. The conclusion? The american system sucked, because it only worked OK with cable distribution (90% of brasillians don't have cabe TV). The european was so-so and the japanese was damn fucking good, becase it was difficult to find a place were it didn't worked. So what system was chosen?

    None. The date of the decision was cancelled, and a full boeing of americans went to Brasilia (the Capital) to bribe people. Now you see the potiticians saying that "oh,wehave to choose this based in the economy, not tecnical meriths... The americas will let us export TVs for the USA!" Ok. Let's see:

    1>Brazil makes 2 TVs and sells one to USA and other to some brazilian, gets money of 1 from the USA and other is paid with brazillian cash.

    2>Brazil sends 70% of boths TVs price to USA for "royalties".

    Veeeery smart.

  7. It's my understanding that congress... by dameron · · Score: 2, Interesting

    works much the same, but I'd like to see Dolby or any other big company pull a $40 million dollar check out of, say, Fritz Hollings slobbering mouth.

    I'd rather wrestle a pit bull for a pork chop.

    (btw, to confirm the "S" in Hollings' name I looked him up on google with:

    riaa representative "back pocket" congress)

    -dameron