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FCC Adopts Broadcast Flag Scheme
sbrown continues: "However, the FCC isn't changing the format of DTV broadcasts at all. As a result, DTV equipment bought right now will continue to work forever, even though future-generation equipment will have fewer features. (For example, a current-generation DTV tuner card like this one can save any DTV broadcast as an MPEG-2 file on your hard drive. But that feature would become illegal in DTV cards after 2005.)"
And The Importance of notes "Note that the facts of the release include 'The broadcast flag protects consumers' use and enjoyment of broadcast video programming. The flag does not restrict copying in any way.'" CBS/Viacom says 'Today's decision by the FCC is an historic step forward for consumers.' The decision was unanimous, with detailed statements by the commissioners here, in PDF:
Its perfectly legal for them to beam these signals through our heads, on our property, but its not legal to decode the broadcasts that were in the clear without locking them down. God bless America.
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
I am becoming more and more convinced that intellectual property is on a collision course with personal liberty. Unfortunately, neither the Republicans or Demorats seem to get this yet.
-- $G
What is to keep me from building a device to mask out the broadcast bit and then passing it through?
Can't be that complicated, and I'm sure someone will even start selling such devices, "for educational purposes only."
====
Crudely Drawn Games
This will work just as well. So the average consumer will be hampered while the clued techy will be able to do what they've always done. Seems silly to me, to requiring others to provide a means to protect somebody elses property. Thats like the government requiring all theives to respect a "please do not steal" sticker on any car that has one.
How do you reconcile 'The flag does not restrict copying in any way' with 'required to check for the presence of the flag and apply DRM restrictions to its outputs'?
What is the purpose of the DRM if not to restrict copying in some way/shape/form?
Of course, it doesn't matter. Just about everything on TV these days, broadcast, cable, or satelite, is pure shite these days.
-paul
responds to this with:
"Technically true, but extremely and exceedingly misleading. Were the definition of "lie" all but emptied of content by politics, I would call this a lie.
KFG
I wonder what effect this will have in DTV equipment between now and 2005? Will the devices made today have good resale value after that time due to the larger set of capabilities? Will they make it illegal to retail this equipment, or just illegal to mfgr (DNRTFA)?
How long after 2005 until they change the format just enough so that it is no longer compatible with pre-2005 equipment?
Don't worry, this will just sign the death of digital TV as we could have known it.
These guys think backward. People want more, not less than whatever they have today.
So tomorrow you'll buy a Digital TV and you'll find yourself unable to record your favorite show because of the fscking flag. Then you'll spread the word of wisdom: Don't buy this sh*t! And nobody will shift to this wonderfully restricted technology because it is worse (end-user wise) than what users have today....
Digital TV is dead. The FCC killed it. Will there be a trial?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
It looks like literature is the last refuge of the free these days. When they take that away, I'll memorize a few books and live down by the train tracks.
personal attacks hurt, especially when deserved
With no encryption, I'm not sure that distributing hacks to disable the flag would qualify as a DMCA violation... that's the interesting question.
You see, the FCC also recently mandated that all broadcasts be digital by 2006(?). So you can buck the system all you want but it won't make any difference.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
...the temprature at which boob tube glass melts...
Any technology distinguishable from magic is not suficiently advanced.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
I suspect this is going to lead (post-2005) to a grey market in tuners and sets that are either actually old enough to be grandfathered in or are alleged to be old enough by the people selling them.
On top of that, of course, there'll be an outright black market in DRM-less tuners just like there's a black market in cable/satellite descramblers now.
All that said, I wonder if prices on devices like the mentioned DTV->MPEG2 converter are about to shoot up?
(As a sidenote, I really love how the various lobbyists and politicians are going on and on about how all of this is for the consumer's protection. Protection from what, exactly? Accidentally taping over home movies with the latest episode of the Sopranos?! But then, if our job is to consume, then recording a show is slacking off on the job.)
I know everyone here thinks that the freedom to copy other people's IP should be totally unfettered, and I guess I sorta agree :), but all things considered, to me this plan doesn't sound so bad.
At least, my cursory five-minute perusal of the FCC statement seemed to indicate to me that:
1) You can still copy and archive with perfect digital fidelity, you just can't redistribute it outside your home network.
2) You can still copy and redistribute digitally at a lower resolution.
3) Unprotected analog output is also allowed.
So what exactly is the problem here?
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Damn it! I was bummed before and now I'm just pissed. I literally just finished ranting about this in the Red Hat thread!
Corporations have destroyed our dream and our hobby that was technology. New ways to do new cool stuff whenever and however the hell we wanted.
Gee I wonder why music sales are down and the economy is tanking. They get what they deserve.
We handed them something great, tore down communication beariers around the world, toiled for decades building more and more for them, and they kicked us in the nuts, handed us the bill, and then told us we weren't patriotic because we didn't smile but that's okay because we are all just evil sons of bitches anyways.
Yup. Now I'm pissed.
A broadcast flag is meaningless given that there are a number of solutions that already ignore it. I happen to have three such systems:
1. Samsung SIR-T150 ATSC receiver, not known to recognize broadcast flag or de-rez component analog outputs.
2. MyHD MDP-100 ATSC receiver card, not known to recognize broadcast flag or de-rez component analog outputs.
3. HD-2000 Linux Only ATSC receiver card, with source code, which does not recognize broadcast flag, and can be reprogrammed to ignore it.
And of course there's GNU Radio, a software only system to receiving, processing, and decoding digital television (and other kinds of) broadcasts, which can ignore the broadcast flag.
The only way a broadcast flag will be useful is if the FCC, the MPAA, and our in-the-pocket politicians take the next logical step: make ignoring it illegal.
How on earth is this going to work? It's just a flag, a bit flipped to true, saying don't copy this. Yet, DTV's right now haven't been engineered to respond to this flag, and the signal format isn't changing, so there's nothing stopping you from using an old DTV and recording video in violation of the flag. Someone needs to just buy up lots of old DTV video cards so shows can be recorded when all new DTVs come with the flag "feature"
I think you'd have to be crazy to buy any display device with a built in tuner - buy a projector, and hunker down for several years until they get this stuff worked out.
Don't forget to check for HDCP compatibility in your display device though, some things are requiring that for HDTV resolution support!!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There is nothing on tv worth viewing anyway. It is more economical for me to buy the dvds of the shows I like (mostly anime) than it is to actually pay for cable. So let them flag all the shit they want, I won't be watching it. Though it does give an unsettling feeling: what if the news companies flag all their broadcasts so they can't be copied? No way to archive what has already happened, so what will stop, lets say fox, from changing news broadcasts after the fact and then claiming it was that way all along since no one could copy it and say differently? And what about the loss of future culture simply becuase no one ever recorded the episodes. I mean, say if something is flagged as no copy and then only broadcast once. Then that is lost to us, the moment it is either destroyed or the technology to view is lost. Didn't they study history? How many books were only one copy was ever made survive from ancient greece? Heck, the books copied were largely lost. I've heard about how our culture is a throwaway culture but this is taking it a bit too literal. I can see it now: "This was the 21st century children. We know they watched this thing called television but the record of these shows ceases beyond 2005. The reason for this gap or what happened during the ensuing decades is unknown to us, since their records are undecipherable or lost but we believe this marked the beginning of the rebellion against the panglobal corporations."
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
Congress already has told the TV industry to switch their broadcasts by 2007 to a digital format, which uses computer language, from the current analog format, which uses radio signals sent as waves.
The "digital providers" will offer "Enhanced TV+", at a low cost initially. These boxes will allow recording of non-feature shows (95% of TV), and won't let you fast forward through ads. A few other trinkets will be thrown in.
Basically, Big Business will provide the lowest level of service *that they know users will put up with*.
DVDs: can't copy them, can't fast-forward through ads
public reaction: "great picture quality"
Twenty years ago, when the majority of software changed from being Free to being proprietary, there was no revolution, despite the public no longer being able to see what the software was doing, modify/fix it, or share it.
Today, people think "stupid hippies want everything to be free". In twenty years time, people will laugh at you for expecting to be able to record a TV program.
It's going to take a lot of work from a small number of people to prevent digital TV etc. from spoiling modern culture/freedom.
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
Oh boy, this is really bad. I remember when they put that region encoding on DVDs, and boy, you sure can't find any region-free DVD players on the market, no sirree.. And it's not like big name brands make DVD players with "unintentional" "secret" "maintenance" backdoors that can switch off the region code restrictions by entering some code that was "accidentally" "leaked" to the internet. That never happens! If it did, why, perhaps people would start buying the models that did have those "accidental" backdoors, in preference to the models that don't..
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
"MPAA advances the use of a redistribution control system which would limit the redistribution of digital broadcast television content, but not restrict consumers from copying programming for their personal use."
I don't see what's unreasonable about this. If the system allows copying to a limit of 3 machines, like the Apple iTunes DRM, that wouldn't be unreasonable. That seems like the direction in which things are headed.
Vote for Pedro
all this does is add the flag to the stream. and it says that receivers must SEE the flag. it does not say what the box does with the flag..if the box lets you record it to DVD, allows you to make a DRMed file for your PC, if it lets you TIVO it, etc. companies will come up with tools that use the flag, and all they have to do is make sure the content is protected from being transmitted over the internet on a massive scale.
this is just a bit that lets the box know "hey, you need to make sure what ever you do to me, I can not easily be thrown onto the internet"
no rule exists as yo what the restrictions are. so we have the power to buy a box that does what we want it to do (as long as it does not give us unrestricted use on the internet.
of course, many of you will say that it still hurts you. I say, worry about it when it actually does hurt you, if you can not do your basic things like TIVO or DVD-R or VCR, that is a problem that limits your ability to use the data. but if I can use the data that way, I am happy and don't care about being able to move a DiVx encoded file to Kazza.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
First Tomacco, now the Evil Bit?
Where will it end? Science, Technology and Philosophy are turning into parodies of themselves... are we transforming into Bizarro world?
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
This sounds like the flag they have in Redbook audio. Whenever I copy a CD in Nero, I see that the tracks are flagged as protected... but that doesn't affect the software in any way.
Don't the news outlets report "FCC moves to erode fair-use rights?" Are they daft or just owned?
Earth is a single point of failure.
If you're a cow, however, you don't consider yourself just meat. And if you're a human being, you shouldn't consider yourself just a "consumer".
Consider what the word consumer means - one who consumes, ie one who swallows what the producers shovel. To consume, one merely needs products to buy; anything that works in favour of products to buy is "good for the consumer".
Me, I think of myself as a citizen or just a plain human being.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
keep the Tivo, or switch to a free version.
use GNU Radio. (Ha, as if that will be user friendly in any way. still, I like the concept.)
DIVX died. DAT died. DTV will be next.
sulli
RTFJ.
From the PDF:
MPAA advocates adoption of the ATSC flag system and characterizes it as an effective and unobtrusive content protection mechanism that will serve as a "speed bump" to ensure that DTV broadcast content is not indiscriminately redistributed. MPAA stresses that an ATSC flag system would only limit redistribution of content and not prevent consumer copying. (III.A.14)
We do not believe, however, that individual acts of circumvention necessarily undermine the value or integrity of an entire content protection system. The DVD example has been instructive in this regard. Although the CSS copy protection system for DVDs has been "hacked"... DVDs remain a viable distribution system for content owners. The CSS content protection system serves as an adequate "speed bump" for most consumers... (III.A.20)
So not only do they admit that CSS cracking wasn't all that terrible for them... But they imply that CSS is meant only to prevent unauthorized distribution, and not copying? Then how come they've gone after every DVD copying software they can, and gone after DeCSS?
Well, that's sort of the point of intellectual property today. It imposes limits on the liberties of everyone other than the creator/rights holder, in order to protect that individual's rights. Most people would say that that isn't inherently a bad thing.
There are two problems below the surface, though. The first is a sort of teleological point - whatever the practical purpose of IP today, there's an ongoing debate about what that purpose SHOULD be. What is the best balance between using IP law to protect the rights holders and using it to encourage the creation of new works? There is a lot of overlap, but they aren't the same goal - there are a lot of nuances that have huge impacts on consumers.
And that's the second problem, and where I think your frustration is coming from. Congresscritters, regulators, and judges don't seem to be doing a very good job of finding a good balance - the incentives of influential rights holders (not necessarily IP creators) are leading further and further down the path of commoditization of intellectual property, and those holding the reins aren't doing enough to look beyond those short-term goals to either the basic premises behind IP law or the eventual effects of the curent trends.
Final result? Who knows. I tend to think that once these restrictions start to bite down on regular consumers (as in, not early adopters or techno-fetishists) there will be more push back towards consumers' freedom to use and enjoy the IP of others. If not, well, I'll buy the rights to some starving artist's masterpiece and live off the proceeds in perpetuity.
Their new season is sucking in the prime 18-49 demographic. And the networks want to implement technologies that make it more difficult for these young people to watch their shows (Tivo, taping, etc.)
These folks are scared. They're content distribution monopoly is getting taken over by the Internet.
Slashdot and other independent content mechanisms are the the future. Not flags on broadcast signals.
Ok. I'm posting this from a commercial operating system (Mac OS X) that includes an open-source core, using a web browser that does the same. I run a personal servers using OpenBSD and FreeBSD. I'm writing code to (in Perl, which is open-source) convert the publicly documented file format (APXL, aka Keynote) of a program I bought to HTML.
The revolution happened. Or more correctly is happening. It just took a while.
Now that, unfortunately, is true.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
I doubt it will be long before people are selling equiptment that ignores the broadcast flag.
That's the funny part. Right now, *all* equipment ignores the broadcast flag...
The pathetic thing is this will have wide ranging implications outside of the US. DTV is now fucked in Canada pretty much across the board thanks to the FCC being the MPAA's bitch.
Quite how this can be seen as a "step forward" for consumers is beyond me. CBS/Viacom must be using a WAY different dictionary to me...
Of course, it could be seen as a step forward for consumers. Kinda like the witch burnings in medieval times were a step forward for decent folk...
I was afraid this would happen. I bought a TV last year that has one of the finest quality pictures you can get, ask anyone on AVS Forums, the pioneer elite pro 520 is amazing. I had it calibrated by a world renowned ISF engineer friend who works on Pixar, ILM and PDIs monitors. $6000 later I'm dialed into HDTV nirvana. but my TV does not have DVI digital connection with copywrite protection crap. Just good ol analog component video inputs. I was bummed when they came out with the new DVI input but thought nothing of it since I could enjoy every bennefit without it.
That was until they started making inexpensive DVD players which would upconvert the 480p material to 1080i. Wow, this sounded AWESOME, but oh no, they only allow this upconversion to take place over the DVI connection. Why you ask? Copy protection, the powers that be would not allow samsung to send high res upconverted video over an analog connection which could easily be recorded. So here I am ready to buy a new DVD player just for that feature, getitng rid of my perfectly good exisitng player, but oooooh noooo, you dont have DVI with HCP so you must be a pirate.
Which makes me wonder, who the hell is going to be trading uncompressed HD video files of some shitty sitcom over the internet? I dont see this as an immediate threat.
Same thing will happen with the broadcast flag, they will use it to screw over all the suckers like me who dont play by their rules. They are slowly eliminating what we used to be able to do with our electronics.
So yes, I can keep using my tv and the existing hardware, but their plan is to make the shit obsolete every few years. Every time they introduce some manadatory copy protection and it gets cracked, they change the specs, make it illegal to use anything but those specs, making upgrades impossible because it would sacrifice the integrity of their precious copy protection.
This rant wasnt very coherent, no real good points were made and it wasnt really well thought out. I have so much freakin anger and hatred for the RIAA, MPAA right now that it makes it difficult to think.
I am becoming more and more convinced that intellectual property is on a collision course with personal liberty. Unfortunately, neither the Republicans or Demorats seem to get this yet.
The problem is more widespread than that. Here is a very brief email exchange I had with the anchor of a certain cable news program:
Me: I was dismayed to see Mr. XXXXX's interview with the new president of the RIAA on Monday night. The issue of downloading music from the internet is not quite as clear-cut as your show presented. It would have been much more interesting to have the RIAA president interviewed side-by-side with a representative from the file-sharing community. The issue of illegal music downloads is the tip of the iceberg for a range of important topics concerning the meaning and relevance of intellectual property and copyright in the 21st century. You are missing a valuable opportunity to examine these complex and important issues and are doing a poor job of reporting impartially when you conclude such a one-sided interview with a comment along the lines of "we wish you good luck" as you did with the RIAA president.
Mr. XXXXX: thanks for the note. My daughter shares your view. She's wrong too:) Stealing is stealing and this is theft. Do I think the industry has handled this correctly? I think my questions suggest probably not. But at the end of the day it is stealing. I am a bit at a loss that you see it otherwise.
I did send a follow-up email that made another attempt that persuing the file-sharing story beyond the shallow depth that they have been could lead to some interesting material for them. I never received a reply.
I was disappointed that this particular individual who, supposedly, is always interested in finding the hidden story behind the headlines, was so quick to compare me to his (persumably) young and immature daughter. I don't believe his quick dismissal of my point was due to spite or pressure from his boss. I think it's just because almost no one (outside of slashdot and a few other niche places) seems to realize that there are much bigger issues at stake here.
I think we need to somehow get "one of us" on one of these news programs to help "the masses" see that there is really an important battle coming in the very, very near future. That being, of course, the collison course you mentioned. How we get someone from our side on one of these programs is beyond me...
GMD
watch this
After all, consumers will have no direct ability to share content, even when they have a legal right to do so. They will have to go the marketplace to get the content they desire. In most cases consumers unintentionally patronize pirates whether it be for knock-off Microsoft products or for mod chips and duped CDs. They simply aren't aware they not using legitimate products. High quality knock-offs are going to be easy to create given the digital content and lack of encryption.
Scene in a fleamarket in 2009 :
child: Wow mom! It's a DVD of Treehouse of Horror XX! I haven't seen that yet! Can we get it!?! Can we get it!?!
mom: Hmmm.. $5? That's pretty cheap... sure.
I am sure there people in <insert usual suspect countries> rubbing their hands with glee. Thanks FCC, you just created a market for them.
-- "Most people prefer a popular myth to an unpopular truth"
So the average consumer will be hampered while the clued techy will be able to do what they've always done.
I kid you not: this last weekend I tried to play a DVD I rented from the video store and got an error message complaining that I needed a Region 1 player. I have a Region 1 player. I have never had this problem playing a rental disk before. I tried again and again and every time got the same error. What was I to do?
Well, fortunately, I happen to know there are many 'soft' hacks for DVD players listed on the web. So I used one of them (it basically entailed typing in the first few digits of pi into the keypad) to disable the region check and I was finally able to watch the DVD. I was kind of amused but also pissed off. It's fine for us techies to find some work around. My mom, on the other hand, wouldn't have had a clue how to get it to work.
Has anyone else ever had this problem with faulty region encoding?
GMD
watch this
This sounds like the Don't copy bit on the old Mac OS. No one paid attention to it, no one coded for it. No one remembers it today, hence it is now the bogus bit.
I didn't say TOO much when they censored broadcasts. I didn't get TOO upset when they changed the rules regarding station ownership, but this goes way too fucking far.
The FCC should come down IN FLAMES. It has proven time and again that it cares not for the consumer. It cares not for civil rights. It is quite simply the embodiment of fascism right in the US government (along with several other things).
Michael Powell, in particular, has proven that he is one of the most evil human being on the face of the Earth.
What can we do to rid our country of this cancer on our country known as the FCC? What can we do to make sure that Powell is expelled from the country?
This is a difficult problem. The FCC is not susceptible to public pressure, and it has proven that it doesn't actually care about the American people. There must be solution, though, to this terrible problem. If we all put our heads together, I'm sure we'll find it.
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
I hate DVDs for many reasons, but the main reason is similar to this "broadcast flag". That is, there is a "feature" of DVDs that allows the creator to designate a portion that cannot be skipped.
This is so they can show you the "FBI Warning", that lies and says you would be committing a criminal act by copying the disc, and so on. Only lately they are abusing this to show previews that you cannot skip.
It's rediculous. There exists no technical reason my DVD player can't skip those previews, and likewise there's no technical reasons a tuner has to obey the "broadcast flag". Unfortunately things are headed in this direction, and there will be many, many other things that don't let us copy -- whether because of actual encryption (at least this is respectable) or some "flag", "region code", or non-standard hack (like CD copy protections schemes).
The sad thing is that, at least on a large scale: it will work. Joe Average won't know where to find DeCSS (or that it even exists), nor will he find the hacked driver (yet to be made) for newer DTV tuner cards; likewise, no manufacturer would mass-produce such devices for sale in the US. Thus, the scheme, no matter how stupid, will be effective, with the law behind it.
NGWave - Fast Sound Editor for Windows
I encourage you to read the statments by Copps and Adelstein. While both of these individuals voted for the measure, the spent a considerable amount of time framing three general areas of dissent:
public domain: the flag should be limited to use only for materials which are copyrightable. For instance, government meetings should not be locked behind the flag
fair use: the flag does not provide a mechanism for educational use of the material where fair use of copyright would be permitted
privacy: improper use of this technology could be used in such a way that people lose privacy; the comments don't say it, but in the hearings it was voiced, "what good is first amendment protection if the government and/or political groups know who is listening to you"
. Then you'll spread the word of wisdom: Don't buy this sh*t!
While at my friend's apartment I said "Hey. check out my new CD of songs I recorded! See if you can come up wtih some Lyrics!"
And he said- "Sorry, charlie. This here is a Sony DCD/CD system. It doesn't play home-made CD's!" some DRM "feature"...
So last weekend when I decided I needed a new system, I completely by-passed Sony.
I'm sure this trend will continue until either manufacturers put in "backdoors" to turn it off or they just don't put it in to begin with.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
To protect your rights, we limit them.
'The broadcast flag protects consumers' use and enjoyment of broadcast video programming.
Sure am glad that I don't watch TV anymore. Looks like I won't be watching movies now.
I went into Bust Buy the other day looking at a HDTV setup, with fairly good sound, a nice picture, a recorder.... all that stuff. It ran over $6,000.00 for everything.
HELLO? Like just *what* friggin' show is worth SIX FREAKIN' KILOBUCKS to watch?
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Ok then, wait until next year when the books have EULAs on their envelopes, you can only use them for 20 days without making another payment, can't sell them, can't give them to anyone else, can't rent them out to others, and it's enforced by the DRM chip in the binder (digital leash for pennies apiece!).
Yah, I'm using my imagination, but you know it will come if they can pull it off. And they'll try. They'll keep trying because there's tons of money in it. If they don't get it right the first 25 times they'll keep coming back, someone will, until they buy the right person or push the right button.
As others have said above, only 2 things (done together) will stop it:
1. Don't buy it.
2. Work to pass laws that both protect your freedom and make it very very hard to overturn them, because people will work very very hard to overturn them if there's tons of money in it.
Television programs are copyrighted. If you believe that the copyright holder of software that is distributed under a GNU-like license has the choice to put restrictions on how their software is used, then you must accept that producers of television programs have the same right. They could, of course, just not broadcast it - or not create it - at all.
paintball
First off, I can't begin to describe how shocked and appalled not by the board's decision, but the "reasoning" Chairman Powell claims is behind the decision. At any rate...
"Today's decision strikes a careful balance between content protection and technology innovation in order to promote consumer interests."
How exactly does content protection figure into consumer interests? It seems on its face that content protection is against consumer interests in that it limits what the consumer can do with the content. The only way content protection could be seen as being in the consumers' interests is if the provider takes the stance of "you'll have my product my way or no way at all," and even then having the product only on the provider's terms is only considered to be "in the consumers' interest" is if the product in question is some sort of narcotic, where the "consumer" needs the product in question at some level.
Considering that, even in the Twenty-First Century more people own a radio than own a television, are we really at the point where the American public needs television, so much so that the seller's desires must be catered to? After all, recent actions by the Commission works to ensure that content on television and on the radio come from the same providers.
If the consumer interest is so important to Mr. Powell, why doens't he take a more capitalistic approach and let the market itself decide exactly what kind of balance is required between consumer use and content control? I fail to see how an artificial, legislated "balance" mechanism such as this can ever be considered a true balance.
"In working through the difficult technical and policy questions in this area, I am very pleased that we have once again crafted digital TV policy in a bipartisan manner."
Bipartisanship is this important? Is it not possible for both Republicans and Democrats to be wrong at the same time?
"First, the broadcast flag decision is an important step toward preserving the viability of free over-the-air television."
This depends entirely what exactly "free over-the-air television" means. Does "free" in this context simply mean "received at no direct cost to the consumer," or does it mean "free to do with in your home as you please?" These are two very different and not always complimentary concepts.
"Because broadcast TV is transmitted "in the clear," it is more susceptible than encrypted cable or satellite programming to being captured and retransmitted via the Internet."
This analogy doens't hold water because, to my knowledge, nothing like this broadcast bit mechanism exists in private content networks such as cable and satellite. In fact, many of these private networks promote copying, archiving and time-shifting of their programs (consider the numerous set-top boxes that have built-in digital recording capabilities), all activities that the broadcast bit is essentially intended to stop. In this respect, these private networks are far more free than the "free, in-the-clear" broadcast market the FCC is now creating. And don't forget that most channels on these private networks rely on advertising revenue just as broadcast networks do.
"The widespread redistribution of broadcast TV content on the Internet would unnecessarily drive high value programming to more secure delivery platforms. The losers would be the 40 million Americans who rely exclusively on free over-the-air TV."
Except that those 40 million Americans you mention are the last people that would adopt digital television technology. Without the greater volume of content that private providers offer, digital television only appeals to die-hard technophiles. Even the FCC knows such people are few and far between; the new broadcast bit rule is an admission by the FCC that content is far more important than picture resolution.
But even if each and every one of those 40 million people did manage to scrape
From fcc.gov:
The FCC is directed by five Commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for 5-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. The President designates one of the Commissioners to serve as Chairperson. Only three Commissioners may be members of the same political party. None of them can have a financial interest in any Commission-related business
I don't see what's unreasonable about this. If the system allows copying to a limit of 3 machines [snip] that wouldn't be unreasonable.
You own two machines, one for the living room and one for your bedroom. Of course you want to play your recordings both places, so there's 2 of your three copies. One day your home is burglarized and your machines stolen; you never had a chance to check-out the recordings played thereon. You buy two new machines. You have one playback left, so where would you like to watch all your existing tapes forever more, living room or bedroom? Choose wisely. If that machine breaks or you are robbed again, your entire archive is now useless. As soon as you tie the recordings to a limited set of playback devices, all recordings become temporary and are effectively timed out when those devices wear out, break, are stolen or destroyed.
Saying yes to DRM, even a little bit, is saying good-bye to ever really owning anything. These rules are really designed to circumvent ownership under the first-sale doctrine, and effectively convert your entire collection of video and audio media to rentals without directly saying so, and fair-use be damned. All in the name of stopping piracy. Bear in mind, we've only seen allegations that domestic home-copying is what's hurting the content industries, we've never seen it proven. And they've given this exact same gloom-and-doom sky-is-falling speech, practically word-for-word, about reel-to-reel tape decks, cassette recorders, and VCRs - and were wrong each time.
The real mass-scale piracy that actually costs the *AA real sales is in Asia and Eastern Europe, where the counterfeiters will be completely unaffected by this and every other copy-protection idea, not in American living rooms, where Mom will always be worried that if the VCR-alike breaks or is stolen, she'll never be able to play back the recording of the time she was interviewed on the local news again.
The only people who won't be harmed are the pirates, as it seems rather trivial to mask out the flags in the process of running a criminal copying enterprise anyway. Add a small grey-market cottage industry for enterprising geeks to break the flags for acquaintances so they don't lose their collections when they buy new equipment, or they forgot to check-in their recording and the power went out or something, and so on.
All this, just to avoid producing content people would want to pay for. Reasonable, it's decidedly not.
Seriously. The entire /. crowd has a phobia of getting in a position to make a change. If a lawyer is qualified, why aren't you? If a car salesman is qualified, why aren't you? 99% of the issues a politician has to deal with they have never had any formal experience with.
/.'ers took it upon themselves to try for something as simple as city councillor, we can expect at least a few clueful people would make it to the lofty chairs in Congress.
We complain about the voting system, we complain about copyright laws, we complain about the war - someone bloody get in the position to *do* something.
It's a long climb up the political ladder, but if one in a hundred
Last post!
It's doesn't matter, the tv shows and movies that I see passed around are so compressed or so low res that it's silly. I guess protection protects against super pirates who sell pirate dvd's, but they'll pirate anyway.
You will FOREVER be able to download Malcom in the Middle the day after it's on TV.
why should we be able to record creations other people have done if they don't want us to?
Fundementally, because we don't give a rat's ass about what they want.
Before you discount this answer, please let me explain. Our copyright system is founded on utilitarian principles. The idea is that copyright should satisfy the public -- specifically the public's interest in the promotion of learning -- as much as possible, while causing as little harm as possible in the process.
If the public decides, through our representation in Congress, that we would be happier with more copyright protection, then we should have more. If we decide that we would be happier with less, then we should have less. Again, we're aiming for whatever makes the public the happiest, accounting for the unhappy costs of achieving that.
What makes the public happy? Basically two things. The first is the creation of works, whether those works are original or derivative. The second is free reign to enjoy those works; to use them, keep them, copy them, change them, distribute them, acquire them for no cost, etc.
In practice, the two different ways that we can pursue happiness are somewhat exclusive. The way that we promote the creation of original works is to limit the ability of others to enjoy those works or to create derivatives based on those works.
That is okay if the public is left better off by sacrificing some of its enjoyment of works and the creation of derivatives, because so many more original works are created that we're overcompensated for what we gave up.
It's not okay if we are paying too much in terms of our freedom in works that are created, because we don't get enough original works created to make up for it.
Thus, returning to my original point, if the public would be better off by permitting unfettered recording of broadcast TV shows, even taking into account the possibility that fewer works would be created, then we ought to do it.
What the artist wants is irrelevant, with two exceptions. One, the artist is a member of the public at large, but not a very significant one. Two, the artist can refuse to create works if he doesn't believe that copyright favors him sufficiently.
However, as we've already discovered by looking at public utility, some artists will demand too much. They will demand more than their original works that they would otherwise create are really worth to us. It is unfortunate to lose them, but if we're all left better off without them (because we have more freedom) than with them (and little freedom), then it's what we've got to do.
A rough analogy would be, if someone would without question provide for your needs and maintain you in comfort for the rest of your life, would it be worth it to you if you had to be their slave? Would you value your freedom even with the warts of having to be self-sufficient, more than a luxurious life in which you aren't allowed to make a single decision for yourself, and are property?
I don't mean to compare the situation of TV viewers to slaves, but my point is simply that sometimes the best thing you can do will nevertheless not be as nice in certain respects as other, worse, options. So you must look at the net result of the good and the bad, to decide which option is OVERALL better.
Here on Slashdot people keep insisting that GPL is in harmony with copyright law, basically saying that you should be able to dictate how people are allowed to redistribute your works.
And the next day, same people line up on barricades to stop unnecessary copying/distribution restrictions imposed by the creators of digital broadcast content!
Well, no one ever actually said that there has to be consistency. Though if you dig deeper, I think you'll find that the two positions are perfectly reconcilable -- in that no one is bound by the GPL unless they volunteer to be, and that they are gaining an advantage (not redistribution, but initial distribution, and reproduction and d
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
There's also the fact that they're going to let broadband-over-powerlines through with no questions, despite the VERY vocal complaints from amateur radio enthusiasts and several other groups. (I think even NASA was one of them.)
The FCC are a joke who will give the regulations to the highest bidder. I would like someone to take the bastards to court, and CBS, so they can show how consumers rights have been pushed forward.
I'm a big motor racing fan. Formula One airs at 6am for the European races where I live. I tape them now. In a few years time, it looks like I'm going to have to get up and watch since I guarantee stations, desperate to protect ad revenue, will fuck ALL their programs with this monstrosity.
Quite how this is going to stop piracy, I'd really like to know. Hell, rips of shows sent out to network affiliates are routinely on the net before they've even aired. The people who release them rip them off the raw feed sent to the affiliate. Quite how these idiotic rules are going to stop that I'd like to know...
Well actually what they are really doing is driving thier customer base away for the most part... Look at whats been happening in the music world... Sales are being driven down and down by the actions of the recording industry... They continue to point the finger at P2P filesharing for reasons of decling sales. when in reality quality of new music is gone... portability is important and when that is taken away... It becomes a hassel... Over all this could be good for society in general once we aren't slaves to the TV anymore we could start to see changes in our social structure.
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
Yes! You are so, so right, I have said this for ages.
At the moment, when there's an environmental issue, we have Young Corporate Representative in a Nice Suit vs. Filthy Matted-Haired Hippy with Dope Leaf Symbol T-Shirt...
When there's a trade/WTO issue we have Sensible and Mature Trade Negotiator vs. Angry and Psychotic Looking Teenager Wearing Anarchy T-Shirt and Ski Mask...
When there's a civil liberties issue we have Reassuring Government Spokesperson Who Just Wants to Protect Us vs. Nutcase Professor of Liberal Arts from Wacky College Campus...
Whenever there's a human rights issue we have Police/Army Representative Doing their Best in a Difficult Job vs. Washed Up Dumpy Looking People Complaining Hysterically.
People who care about such things (which is hopefully most people here) really, REALLY need to learn the difference between adopting an appearance that is appealing to ordinary people and 'selling out.' Imagine how much more impact an environmental/trade/human rights protests would have if they were attended by people with good haircuts, wearing nice clothes and even *gasp* suits, shirts, and ties. And imagine how much more impact it would have on the average TV viewer to see a smartly dressed person in their late 20s/early 30s talking clearly and compellingly about these issues instead of a nervous looking doped up hippy/drooling nerd/fringe dwelling libertarian.
We live in a democracy. As such, we need to appeal to the majority or at least a solid minority of people to get anything to change. This will not happen while people are too principled to realise that one of the basic rules of PR is to come across as (a) the same as your audience or (b) a charismatic authority figure who can be trusted.
Every time there is an issue I care about on TV they do an interview with some braindead first year university student or junior high school student with bright red dyed hair and a nose ring who says something to the effect of "big companies fucking suck" or "I hate how stupid ordinary people are," and I just shudder to think of Mr. and Mrs. John Q Voter at home listening to it and deciding to vote for the Nazi party because at least they have neat uniforms and are well spoken.
Read Pynchon.
DVDs: can't copy them, can't fast-forward through ads
/decent/ DVD player, and all is happy.
Huh? Region coding... hmm, I heard about that once.
I hire Region 1 DVDs quite frequently, despite being in Australia - and often only notice after watching it. A quick RPC-1 patch to the DVD-ROM's firmware, plus a
The point is that as the lockdown gets more offensive, more people will just ignore it. These schemes will always be broken, and eventually broken in ways that can't be fixed while retaining backward compatability. It's irritating, and many people don't/can't ignore the restrictions, but it's not the end of the world.
I still think it's revolting, counterproductive, annoying, and generally offensive though.
Do you know what the problem with all of this is? Between the FCC, DCMA, RIAA, etc. The problem is no one has any BALLS in this country and allows the government to rape them in the rear. Maybe when "humans" learn to be smart they will get together and protest against the government's actions. Who agrees?
The one you fear is fear itself.
need I say more?
I kinda expected this from the FCC....to go forward, you take about 5 steps back. Maybe some of the third world nations will be more advanced by the time DTV is out.
Flag compliance really is a waste of resources.