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Build Your Own TV Without Broadcast Flags
doom writes "An account of an event sponsored by the EFF, a "roll your own television" build-in. The San Francisco Bay Guardian has coverage in an article entitled Build Your TV!". From the article: "According to the FCC, the flag is going to ease the nation's transition from today's analog televisions to tomorrow's high-definition televisions. What exactly does it mean for a government agency to "ease" the transition from one kind of TV signal to another? In this case, it seems to mean making the entertainment industry feel very warm and fuzzy inside." The EFF's efforts against the flag have been covered before on Slashdot.
Bush is a great president and he will not let this broadcast flag happen under his watch. I know liberal /. probably doesn't get this, but the Republicans are all about SMALLER gov't, people.
This is going no where as long as Republicans are leading this great nation.
I thought that judges told the broadcast regulator that the flag was unlawful? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4290315.stm
Hence rolling your own tv would be entirely redundant?
It means we're going to transition from a time when we have a constitutional right to record shows to a time when we don't.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I thought the courts slowed/stopped the fcc from mandating anything like this? References in reverse chronological order
/. Story One: Broadcast Flag in Trouble /. Story 2: Court Says FCC Out-of-Bounds With Digital TV
Like here
Or Here
So why are we worried?
Wang33
PAGERANK++ Robsell.com
Seems to me that this could be the begining of a Kit TV era. Kits that would include a broadcast flag 'chip' that could be mistakenly left out by the user. At least that would be one way to skirt the system - albiet legal ramifications would likely exist with this model - I'm sure others will be fourthcomming.
This flag is going to be like any copy protection that we've seen to date. Those who want to steal will just get around it, and those who don't steal will be extremely inconvenienced.
If things keep going the way they did on that last court opinion, we may not have to deal with this sillyness.
Seriously though, I predict broadcastless recievers will become as common as regionless DVD players, and that it'd be another enormous flop.
I'm not gonna to take it anymore. I'm gonna toss the damned boob tube out the window.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
... if we can buy non-BF ready TVs in .ca after they become illegal in the US? It's ~10% the size of the US market but it'd be nice to have HTDV for watching DVDs etc.
Trolling is a art,
"According to the FCC, the flag is going to ease the nation's transition from today's analog televisions to tomorrow's high-definition televisions."
Funny the only thing the broadcast flag is meant to ease is the minds of the media fatcats.
Just like software patents in Europe, the forces behind this (well-funded forces) will not give up until they succeed in implementing the lockdown of all media. A court ruling is just a minor speedbump in the process.
In Europe, even after near-unanamous votes against software patents, they are still about to become reality.
The court merely ruled that the FCC did not have the implicit authority to order the flag. All that is needed is a lay giving the FCC the explicit authority. That kind of law is easy to purchase.
There is not nearly enough love in the world, but there is far too much trust.
'ALL I WANT is to make a high-definition copy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, save it on a DVD, and loan it to my friend," says Sarah Brydon, looking up from a long table covered with half-built computers.
Err... what's wrong with this picture? Women don't look up from tables covered with half-built computers... do they?!
So when do we start seeing mod chips for TVs?
The broadcast flag is a part of a LARGER system to keep us from recording ALL programing.
i ne er/f-MO-Earth_to_congress.shtml
The way broadcast flags are mentioned its all about stopping HDTV programing from getting on the net. It makes it sound like we'll still be able to record our analog shows.
However, analog outputs will be soon be illegal on all television devices. Thus, this is about locking down ALL content.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I stopped watching TV years ago, and with a few rare exceptions, I do not miss it at all.
Of course, they canceled one the exceptions ( farscape ), further reinforcing my decision.
That's the only way things will change: Vote with your cash, or in this case, your unwillingness to deal with their crap. You may think you *need* your TV, but you don't.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
While I applaud this as a demonstration and hope it will have some effect in educating the public, the mere fact that hobbyists can evade a technical protection measure is not, in itself, of much social importance.
During Prohibition, Californian vineyards openly marketed bricks of compressed, dried Zinfandel grapes, together with a strongly worded warning to the consumer explaining that they should not any circumstances mix the grapes to five gallons of water, five pounds of sugar, and yeast.
If the **AA's can create a climate of fear and create the impression that legitimate fair use is illegal, they win--even if devices that circumvent the broadcast flag become as available as marijuana.
How long before the broadcast flag is used to avoid recording news? This government seems more than a little bit inclined to consider images of, say, Guantanamo bay or prisioner torture sensitive information...
I only hope this idea doesn't catch.
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
Why do people, who have NO experties in an area, feel the need to talk about an area.
In the United States we have a United States Supreme Court. That Court interprets the Constitution and statutes. It has interpreted Article. I Section. 8. Clause 8 to have limits on monoplies associated with IP. The limits are called "fair use."
These rights were enacted by Congress in TITLE 17, CHAPTER 1, 107 of the US code.
Based on the Courts' interpretation of both the Constitution and the code, they held in the case of Universal v Sony that citizens in the US have a fair use right to record shows.
Does that answer your question?
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
To be economical, HDTVs must shoot for massive integration on chip. Digital TV means exactly that.
Unless you have access to xray machine, the ability to open a chip and identify and inspect traces, and just generally reverse engineer the chipset, and then reprogram it, it is a sealed component and will be very difficult to circumvent.
Not saying it couldn't be done, but a frontal assault would be extremely difficult, so as always, a backdoor located would be the approach.
But they know that.
In fact, forget the TV ...
And the blackjack.
I'm hurt here. I use MythTV to record HDTV, much like you use your HDTiVo. However, because MythTV is open source, it is impossible to have it encrypt the outgoing signal using HDCP, even if I'm using a DVI connection to my HDTV.
Further, I have a CRT-based HDTV, and when using the DVI input, it has far too much overscan. If I use component output, then I can adjust the overscan, but I can't with DVI, so going digital isn't the best option.
And even further, my TV has only one DVI input, so if I have multiple HD sources, then I have to recable my TV to change sources (like, say, a HDTiVo, satellite receiver, and broadcast ATSC tuner).
Fair use is a defense, not a right.
The right you're looking for is the right of free speech; it's the same right that the creators of the show rely upon to record it the first time, even before broadcast.
-- 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.
Except neither one of us should be required to spend time and money to bypass something that shouldn't be there anyway. We all know the flag will do nothing to slow down "piracy", its only purpose is to give the industry more control.
For example, take the DVD player. The other day I wanted to show something to one of my kids quick as we were on our way out to return the DVD's we had rented. Put in the DVD and the usual junk starts up, so I...
Hit fast foreware : Operation not permitted.
Hit the "Next Chapter" button : Operation not permitted.
We were out of time, my wife was hollering at us to get going...
Hit the Stop button : Operation not permitted.
??? You mean I'm not even allowed to Stop playing, I have to watch it???
Fortunately the MPAA can't yet override the power button on the front of the player.
Yes, I have the hardware and software that would allow me to rip a DVD, strip it of all the crap, and burn a "perfect" copy to a blank DVD-R disk. But I shouldn't have to do that just to enjoy a movie the way I want to.
Actually, it *is* a Constitutional issue. See The Ninth and The Tenth Amendments.
Simply put, the Ninth says, "Even if we didn't mention them, you still have all your rights". The Tenth says, "If we didn't talk about it here, the Feds have no power to do it."
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
How can the FCC beleive that a technology designed only to prevent useability will be a benefit to end users in any way?
You don't understand. The broadcast flag eases transition to HDTV by getting plenty of HDTV sets out into the marketplace! Indeed, as other posters have pointed out, HDTV sets manufactured before the deadline are under no obligation to honor the broadcast flag. So how is the smart consumer gonna react, hmmm?