Sununu Sets Aim on Broadcast Flag Again

Flag waver writes "Senator John Sununu (R-NH) will introduce legislation that will prevent the FCC from creating technology mandates for the consumer electronics industry. As a result, the FCC would be hamstrung in its efforts to revive the broadcast flag. '"The FCC seems to be under the belief that it should occasionally impose technology mandates," Sununu said in a statement. "These misguided requirements distort the marketplace by forcing industry to adopt agency-blessed solutions rather than allow innovative and competitive approaches to develop."' Sen. Sununu previously tried without success to remove the broadcast flag provisions from the massive telecommunications bill that died before reaching the Senate floor during the last Congress."

Comments

Good and Bad

[mastershake_phd]

While I usually think the less government interference is best. The FCCs plan to make all broadcast TV digital will speed up adoption. As a person without cable(yes I know its 2007, but I refuse to pay $40/month) who gets his TV from an analog antenna and bitorrent. Im not sure where this leaves me. Ive looked into how I can watch digital broadcast now, and Im not entirely sure what kinda hardware I need without buying a new TV. Once digital broadcast is the only choice Im sure I can get a digital antenna to analog kit for $20 somewhere. Its not like the FCC doesnt already dictate technology. AM/FM, the cell spectrum, they have already dictated what part of the spectrum is for what. Lets just hope they dont start charging for broadcast TV. The FCC already sold off the cell spectrum, which is now being sold back to us at riduculous prices. $.05 for a text message?

Re:I wish he was my representative

[fireboy1919]

will also prohibit FCC to enforce mandatory interoperability and adherence to standards

No it won't. Their position as enforcers will remain.
It'll just keep them from using that position to making their own laws, which isn't the same thing at all. They'll still be the ones to find you and get you arrested if you start broadcasting your own pirate radio station.

I think this generally makes sense. The FCC is supposed to be just an enforcer, aren't they?

I'm not sure that I wouldn't prefer the FCC to be the ones making the rules, though, since the alternative is that Congress makes 'em, but it might be for the best. What process do you have to overturn FCC mandates? How can you guarantee that you know about all the rules that they've made up?

Congress has a well-known process in place already to deal with both these questions.

Re:I don't think I could support this bill

[AB_Positive]

Libertarian - in Sununu's section of the state too. I've had correspondance with him and frankly he's a jackass. I wouldn't be surprised to see that there was some interesting wordings attached to the end of the bill as well.

Do not trust Sununu.

-AB+

Re:I don't think I could support this bill

[mangu]

Without mandated standards the cable industry would fragment with each manufacturer of devices coming up with their own standards like Motorola and Scientific Atlanta and all the different access control device manufacturers did in the 1990's

You mean, like the video tape industry was fragmented between VHS and Betamax? Let the market take care of fragmentation.

If you want to pass a simple law that makes any future broadcast flag moot, pass a law that removes copyright protection* from any work where the a paying customer can not easily remove DRM from media without paying an additional fee.

I'd go much further than that. Copyright protection should be awarded only to human-readable material. At most give it to non-DRM digital media that uses open standards. If you put any for of encryption you shouldn't need or receive any additional protection from the legislation. Copyrights are granted on the provision that the material will eventually enter public domain. If your work is distributed with any protection, how will the future generations use it after the temporary protection against copying granted by copyright law ends?

Likewise, copyrights should be granted to software only under the condition that it's distributed with source code. There are methods, such as hardware dongles, that protect executable software against unauthorized copying, you don't need copyright for that.

PLEASE support this!

[Anonymous Coward]

All:

I'm posting anon for damn good reason.

I work engineering for one of the largest cable companies in the country. We've been hearing that all the new contracts have clauses forcing us to provide broadcast flag measures. We've been told to have it ready this spring for a test run against customers this summer.

I'm talking about:
  - Disable record
  - Limit playback to N times
  - Disable analog
  - Limit outputs to 480i
  - Disable fast forward/rewind/skip forward/skip back

I feel it's unethical... especially since you're already paying for these channels.

Please support this legislation. I don't want this to happen!

Re:PLEASE support this!

[glindsey]

Working in engineering as you say, your group has the ability to "accidentally" insert backdoors into the system that disable all of these restrictions. If enough people are in on it, these backdoors might, oh, I don't know, mysteriously not get caught by code reviews... curiously not be documented in QA test procedures...

Just a thought.

Re:I wish he was my representative

[DavidShor]

My understanding is that is more of a anti-trust issue

Re:I wish he was my representative

[DavidShor]

Cable companies were locking down their set-top boxes so that consumers would be forced to pay monthly for them(It also allows for easier DRM, but that is really a secondary concern). The bigger problem is that there are only 4 major cable companies(and therefore only a couple of set-top companies), so if cable companies are doing the buying instead of consumers, it creates a monospony situation and opens the door to collusion.

By forcing interoperability(all of the set-top boxes were using similar standards anyway), they put the buying power back in the hands of consumers, enabling a more efficient market structure.