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Preparing for the Broadcast Flag?
Couch Potato asks: "I'm worried that, come next July, the FCC mandated broadcast flag will soon take away all sorts of fair use rights I have long enjoyed. Given that there are only a few months left to make purchasing decisions, how best can one prepare for the advent of the broadcast flag?"
"I'm somewhat aware of projects like Myth TV, but it's not all that I want. Specifically, I want to make sure that I can record DVDs or similar files of any program I want off of cable, sattelite or broadcast TV, flag or not and without any other encumbering restrictions (such as the Macrovision DRM for DVDs) and without worry that someday they'll change something so that my old drivers and hardware are suddenly obsolete and useless when faced with updates to the formats. Note that this makes closed-source-only drivers an issue, because assuming the hardware can still be adapted to whatever they change on us, open-sources drivers can be modified and closed-source ones probably won't be, whether for legal or practical considerations. So then, what can someone with a modest budget do to make sure that their constitutional fair use rights don't succumb to planned obsolecense, like the VCR has?"
While on the topic, does anyone know if I buy a HD tunner card now, before they become extinct in July, if it will even work after the flag is issued?
.. buy from Canada? :)
Wasn't this a worry when they first came out with DVDs, that you lost your ability to "archive" them? I'm sure that given some time, people will be able to easily defeat the broadcast flag with relative ease. Although the legality of doing so is questionable at best...
Honestly. I haven't had a TV/Cable connection for the past seven years. I haven't missed it at all. All my friends drone on and on about the latest episode of "Star Trek: the Berman Tragedy" or "Friends II: Las Vegas," but I honestly don't envy their ability to keep track of the latest shows. So-called news regarding ideas like "Survivor: Soyuz," Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice," and sequels to "The Simple Life" just enforce my resolve to not care about television at all.
[
Step 1: Understand that 99.9% of shows on TV are crap anyway.
Step 2: Cease to care whether or not you can legally record them.
Step 3: Cancel your cable/satellite service.
Step 4: Download the 2 or 3 shows you really enjoy watching.
0 1 - just my two bits
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
You could try to stop time, progress and technical evolution. That way, your shiny new equipment will never become obsolete.
Sorry, that's a small jab. We can't predict what the future will bring. I can tell you this though...
If you want to be able to do things with bits that the powers that be try to stop you from doing, your best bet will always be had in the hobyist (read free software / oss) areas. This is because companies who want to compete and cooperate to get your money will b forced to play by the rules imposed by those would deny digital rights. Individuals will not bend to this, so the free stuff, while admitedly slower on the curve, will be your best bet, if freedom is your motivation. This means invest in your PC.
If you want digital input to your TV, go over DVI, but be sure that any set you look at will play non DRM encoded stuff. I believe the MPAA is attempting to mandate the broadcast of digital signals in a format which will limit rights. There are two types of digital interface on a television. My memory is sketchy here, I bought my set over 18 moonths ago. I do know though that there are a couple of different interface/protocol types, some of which use only the protocol which the MPAA is trying to define (in their favour). Be careful of that.
To excerpt from an article posted on BetaNews:
Two of the three federal appeals court judges from the District of Columbia scolded the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday over what they saw as an overstep of the agency's authority given by Congress. The reprimand came in response to the FCC's ruling on the "broadcast flag."
Inconceivable!
Obviously you're not from the US... when is the last time the public actually stood up for their rights? How about when people were able to come to an intelligent decision? I'd say it only happens every hundred years or so... hell - it even took a massive fight between two large groups of people to decide something as simple as the idea of equality between two separate groups of people. Good luck convincing soccer mom's that freedom of speech has a purpose. Why not take away their SUVs while we're at it?
Yes, I did buy a pcHDTV2000 card, more on general principles than anything else, but my overall attitude on the broadcast flag can be summed up in two words:
Screw them.
If the broadcasters insist upon making me not the master of my TV, PVR, and DVD player, then I shall not consume their product - I'll read a book, I'll work on my car/computer/house/physique, and generally be better off than I am now.
The manufacturers of HDTV sets aren't seeing quite the volume they want - guess what guys, if you continue to make things less friendly to the consumer they will not consume as much!
Perhaps we shall see a rise of "GPL TV" - people creating shows for download (Considering the success of Homestar Runner, this may not be as far-fetched as we might think). Imagine - a Star Dreck^WTrek that has somewhat sensible science and stories! A rendition of Starship Troopers that is actually faithful to RAH's vision!
But no matter what - if my TV does not recognize me as its lord and master, then it shall be summarily expelled from my castle.
www.eFax.com are spammers
The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
This issue isn't a technicality but a very valid point with regard to legislation and powers delegated by the U.S. Constitution.
Our goverment is (and should be) set up in such a way so that, when in doubt, the people have right of way.
This is not only an issue of the FCC overstepping its authority, but a fundamental question of what the federal government can, and cannot do.
Friends help you move
Good friends help you move Bodies
The ATI card is a joke, it doesn't have a built in MPEG decoder, instead that work gets offloaded to your CPU.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Oh, you bet people will care when they can't record something they want to keep like they've become used to.
I can understand blocking recording of Pay Per View on-demand movies, but I'm certain that the broadcast flag will be abused to cover other shows.
Until the public retaliates. What cable company wants to deal with people complaining they can't record $show?
Maybe money would be best spent on creating and mailing out a "Your Fair Use Rights of Music and Television" to everyone in the country, outlining what they are allowed to do by law, and where their rights are being limited by various technologies.
I wrote my rep in my ditrict. She wrote me back telling me tough shit in not so many words completely siding with the FCC. I may have the email still. It made me furious.
a ite/telescare.html I swear it wasn't me.
http://www.house.gov/brown-waite/
At least she won't vote for privitizing social security. The average age in this district IS 127. I bring it down a bit.
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/fl05_brown-w
wtf are you talking about. search the text of the US Constitution and you will not find the phrase "fair use".
/interpretation/ that the language actually present in the constitution denotes a "fair use right" -- and much as the "right to privacy", the "right to own a handgun", "the right to choice", and the "right to have gay sex", anything up to interpretation is likely to be re-interpreted.
/in writing/ and not rely on changing interpretation or to wait and see which pile of lawyers has the bigger money pile.
/interpretations/ centralising power not only left us with an FCC which could mandate the broadcast flag, it left us with not much choice other than to just take it in the arse when they mandate it. the FCC is just another massive government agency battling for tax dollars in a massive, misspent, misfortunate contest of penis size as budget cap.
you seem to be talking about the generally held
us freedom-loving people have had it high on the hog with the centralisation of power under a liberal government (except for gun rights). now that this centralised power is under conservative control we're shocked (shocked!) when the interpretation changes to our disliking. boo fscking hoo.
if we want a lasting right to fair use, to privacy, or whatever, we had better get it
if we don't want a powerful central government dictating law to us from their corporate puppeteers, then massive decentralisation of that power or, at least, less corrupt influences on that power, are needed. seriously, is there a more sure recipe for corruption than to put as much power in as few hands as possible? guess what, the Constitution never outlined plans to vest this much power in Washington, DC, but a rampant-running series of
MORTAR COMBAT!
Here's a concept:
1. We work hard on establishing a world wide WiFi network that isn't supplied or owned by ISPs, but is a collective non-profit organization.
2. Set up multiple membership levels with different requirements:
a. Standard users (just a regular WiFi access point to "catch the signal")
b. Operators (a bridging WiFi set up that connects several neighborhoods together)
c. Watchtower men (long range WiFi setups that can spam 20-50 miles to connect the Operators together)
d. Publishers (Centralized content hosting for free media perhaps in partnership with Wikimedia and the like)
3. Use this network to broadcast live and on/demand programming that is supplied and produced by any members
Ideally, this should really be multiple assocaited projects. The primary one being the non-profit that organizes the members of this wireless network. The other projects would be focused on creating content publishing software that would make it easy for anyone to publish video and audio, as well as education on creating media.
Barring any of that, a similar kind of network would probably grow tremendously if "Joe Average" learned that he could download the latest episodes of his favorite show using a WiFi peer-to-peer network...
So which is it going to be corporate America? Do you turn every citizen into a criminal, or do we find alternatives to your crap?
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
That sounds like a great system. Here in my country, candidates are given campaign money by huge corporations, because the more you spend to advertise the greater return you get at the voting booth. Then after election, the elected official reciprocates by changing or enacting laws favorable to big business and large corporations. Theoretically, any person can be elected to office here, but it usually doesn't work that way, because funding to oust an incumbant would come from corporate sponsors. My system in my country has worked well for a long time. Oh, BTW I live in America, where are you?
hi.
/OF
The simplest solution is to stop watching television. I got bored of television some 10 years ago. I took it up again last autumn but lost interest.
I guess this is not feasible for everyone.
Next thing is the observation that somewhere there is a DA converter where the input side is digital and the output side is analogue. And as long as there isn't any unbreakable decryption technique buried inside the DA converter the solution is simply to read the input side of the DA converter.
This is also the same reason that copy protection will never work. Somewhere the digital data has to be converted to analogue so all you have to do is to nick the data right there.
I guess this text will render it impossible for me to get a visa to the USA...
FWIW
The broadcast flag is designed to control content due to the success of TV shows on DVD sales. Also factor in the nice high resolution broadcast quality versions you could be saving/recording instead of buying on HD DVD... :) They just dont want you to record what you've already paid for. And yes sitting through commercials during a tv show is paying for a tv show. Afterall, they dont get advertising money for tv shows if they didnt have our ratings numbers. Hey according to the FCC, Them's is our airwaves! ;) HAHAHAHAHA. As if fucking over the entire public wasnt enough for the FCC, spitting that bullshit back in our faces should have resulted in riots ;)
:)
I think the real shame is that as a result of this broadcast flag, Hollywood will simply fuel an entire underground HD-TV show swaping network on the internet.
There will be 10x the amount of traded HD-TV shows being swapped online. There will be a huge demand for those who can provide recorded versions of your favorite tv show.
Dont these companies realize that the more they squeeze the people, the more willing the people are to fuck them back?
We're a country of rebelling bastards, its what we do best
So let the corperations continue to own and control our government. It's nothing new. We've already lost that war years ago.
Hollywood, say hello to the larger than ever, more elite than ever, more unstoppable than ever, and more right than ever... underground HD-TV show scene that you have created. Way to learn from the past, you fucking morons (hollywood).
Only on Slashdot can someone have their facts wrong and be modded insightful.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
I notice that they only include the money spent by the candidates themselves and not any of the advocacy groups or parties. Got any numbers on those last two? As I seem to recall, a lot of those "advocacy" groups spent a lot of money this last election.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
The problem is that powerful copyright holders have extended the "applicable laws" more than once, retroactively. The problem is that "applicable laws" have ceased to protect the public from IP hoarding.
What right do you have to claim it as "your" culture?
The right to sing a combination of notes, or to write a combination of words, is inherent. The people chose to give that right up in the form of a temporary monopoly called copyright, in exchange for more and better creativity. Specifically, copyright laws enabled a professional creative class that doesn't require private sponsorship, which is a very good thing so far, but the people did not sign away the right to sing those notes or write similar words forever.
One thing you need to understand is that copyright also prohibits anybody else from independently coming up with that series of notes later. That "anybody else" might in fact have released the song into "our culture" for free, but we've chosen to lock that part of "our culture" up temporarily to encourage the first comer.
[...] your attitude smells of slavery. ou want to force the IP creators to give away thier creations so that you do not have to expend any effort in acquiring it your self.
First of all, you need to apologize to slaves for trivializing their plight. If copyright was not protecting your livelihood, you can switch to another job that you can do. Slaves have no such choice, so don't even begin to compare software engineers or musicians without copyright to slavery. (No, it doesn't even "smell" of it.)
Secondly, I see no such sentiment in the post you are responding to. The complaint seems specifically directed at the "ones with complete contempt for the notion of the public domain, who have repeatedly bought extensions to the duration of copyright". I think we're talking about people who want to retroactively extend copyright, which is in its moral essence refusing to uphold their end of the deal.
Finally, speaking specifically to the software engineer, the public will derive zero benefit from your software after a certain time period (depending on the nature of your work, of course, but particularly if the sources are closed). Thus, it's not in the public's interest to protect your work for that long. We'd like it to be somewhat useful, for some time, in the public domain, in exchange for that protection. A balance needs to be struck so you will be encouraged to create, but it's not fair to expect to profit for as long as your creation is useful.
I just use a Dazzle Hollywood DV bridge. I appears to my machine as a DV camcorder. It takes a video input signal and converts it to raw DV. I can do with the result what I wish. I generally use it for recording stuff from my DirecTiVo and burning DVDs from the DV. $DEITY bless iMovie, iDVD and my PowerBook.
I bought it originally to keep using my 8mm video camera instead of buying an $800 (at the time) DV camcorder. I've found tons of other uses for the thing now.
The Master (Angelo Rossitto) in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, "Not shit, energy!"
This is truly an interesting case, and it marks a significant point in American history. The broadcast flag is obviously, blatantly, hideously un-American, but whether or not it stands will be decided based solely on how much of our legal system is owned by Hollywood. If I were a gambler, I would put my money on Hollywood. It's pessimistic, I know, but I think we've already crossed the bridge and there's no turning back. I say that based on the fact that ridiculous things like DMCA and INDUCE have/will become law.
>One thing you need to understand is that
>copyright also prohibits anybody else from
>independently coming up with that series of
>notes later.
Ehh, this might be something that is different in US copyright laws, but if you can show that you came up with it independantly it is NOT a copyright infringement. The hard part is showing that though. But if you actually do create something independantly you would not infringne. As I said, not sure if it is the same way in US copyright laws though.