wessman
May 8th, 2003, 01:39 PM
Latest from EFF...
Alert: Support Fair Labelling for Copy-Protected Media!
Senator Ron Wyden recently introduced the Digital Consumer
Right-to-Know Act (DCRKA), a bill that would require entertainment
companies to label products with copy-protections that limit consumer
use. Support the DCRKA if you think the content industry should be
ordered to clearly label media that restricts your rights!
Send a letter to your Senators with the EFF Action Center:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2664
=============
EFF Resists Copy Protection on Cable
Files Comments with FCC on Cable "Plug & Play" Regulations
Is restrictive "content protection" in your digital television future?
On April 28, 2003, EFF filed its "reply" comments in the Federal
Communications Commission's (FCC) regulatory proceeding aimed at
ensuring that future digital television devices can directly
interoperate with digital cable services, without the need for a
"set-top box." EFF urged the Commission not to let these "plug and
play" proceedings be hijacked by Hollywood's "content protection" agenda.
For nearly a decade, Congress has been urging the FCC to adopt
technical standards to allow a direct connection between your TV
products and cable service. (An estimated 70% of American TV viewers
subscribe to cable TV.) Unfortunately, just as the cable and consumer
electronics (CE) industries began reaching agreement on standards, the
motion picture industry got into the act and demanded that content
protection technologies be included.
What kind of "protection technologies" are we talking about? Well, one
example would be the ability to mark content as "copy never," for
example, allowing content owners to eliminate home recording. Another
example is "selectable output control," meaning that the content owner
can remotely control which outputs work in your living room, blocking
analog outputs in favor of "secure" digital ones on a
program-by-program basis. In addition, the movie studios want the
ability to dictate that products be built "tamper-resistant," which
would block open source software-based solutions. And the lynchpin to
the whole regime is a requirement that "secure" (read: licensed)
devices will refuse to talk to any device that isn't also "secure"
(read: licensed). This means that innovators will have to participate
in a complex private licensing pool before they are allowed to build
anything that can be connected to your television. (In such a world,
ReplayTV would never have been permitted.)
In December 2002, the cable and CE industries agreed on a set of "plug
and play" standards and submitted them to the FCC. The proposed
agreement includes content protection, but tries to offset the impact
on consumers by including "encoding rules" aimed at limiting the
restrictions that Hollywood can impose on various kinds of content.
The FCC asked for public comment on the cable-CE proposal.
EFF filed two sets of comments, urging the FCC to resist Hollywood's
content protection agenda. First, EFF urged the FCC to retain its
rules requiring that "basic tier" cable remain unencrypted and free of
all "content protection" restrictions. Second, EFF urged the FCC to
ban the use of "selectable output control" and "down-resolution"--
Hollywood's effort to disable or degrade the analog outputs on digital
television devices. Finally, EFF asked the FCC to convene new
proceedings to examine whether any "content protection" restrictions
are justified for cable television.
EFF's initial comments are available at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20000907_eff_comments_hdtv.html
EFF's reply comments are available at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20030328_fcc_cable-ce_comments.pdf
For a good overview of the history behind this proceeding, see the
initial comments of the Consumer Electronics Association:
http://www.ce.org/shared_files/initiatives_attachments/111CEA_DTV_Cable_Compatibility.pdf
Alert: Support Fair Labelling for Copy-Protected Media!
Senator Ron Wyden recently introduced the Digital Consumer
Right-to-Know Act (DCRKA), a bill that would require entertainment
companies to label products with copy-protections that limit consumer
use. Support the DCRKA if you think the content industry should be
ordered to clearly label media that restricts your rights!
Send a letter to your Senators with the EFF Action Center:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2664
=============
EFF Resists Copy Protection on Cable
Files Comments with FCC on Cable "Plug & Play" Regulations
Is restrictive "content protection" in your digital television future?
On April 28, 2003, EFF filed its "reply" comments in the Federal
Communications Commission's (FCC) regulatory proceeding aimed at
ensuring that future digital television devices can directly
interoperate with digital cable services, without the need for a
"set-top box." EFF urged the Commission not to let these "plug and
play" proceedings be hijacked by Hollywood's "content protection" agenda.
For nearly a decade, Congress has been urging the FCC to adopt
technical standards to allow a direct connection between your TV
products and cable service. (An estimated 70% of American TV viewers
subscribe to cable TV.) Unfortunately, just as the cable and consumer
electronics (CE) industries began reaching agreement on standards, the
motion picture industry got into the act and demanded that content
protection technologies be included.
What kind of "protection technologies" are we talking about? Well, one
example would be the ability to mark content as "copy never," for
example, allowing content owners to eliminate home recording. Another
example is "selectable output control," meaning that the content owner
can remotely control which outputs work in your living room, blocking
analog outputs in favor of "secure" digital ones on a
program-by-program basis. In addition, the movie studios want the
ability to dictate that products be built "tamper-resistant," which
would block open source software-based solutions. And the lynchpin to
the whole regime is a requirement that "secure" (read: licensed)
devices will refuse to talk to any device that isn't also "secure"
(read: licensed). This means that innovators will have to participate
in a complex private licensing pool before they are allowed to build
anything that can be connected to your television. (In such a world,
ReplayTV would never have been permitted.)
In December 2002, the cable and CE industries agreed on a set of "plug
and play" standards and submitted them to the FCC. The proposed
agreement includes content protection, but tries to offset the impact
on consumers by including "encoding rules" aimed at limiting the
restrictions that Hollywood can impose on various kinds of content.
The FCC asked for public comment on the cable-CE proposal.
EFF filed two sets of comments, urging the FCC to resist Hollywood's
content protection agenda. First, EFF urged the FCC to retain its
rules requiring that "basic tier" cable remain unencrypted and free of
all "content protection" restrictions. Second, EFF urged the FCC to
ban the use of "selectable output control" and "down-resolution"--
Hollywood's effort to disable or degrade the analog outputs on digital
television devices. Finally, EFF asked the FCC to convene new
proceedings to examine whether any "content protection" restrictions
are justified for cable television.
EFF's initial comments are available at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20000907_eff_comments_hdtv.html
EFF's reply comments are available at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/20030328_fcc_cable-ce_comments.pdf
For a good overview of the history behind this proceeding, see the
initial comments of the Consumer Electronics Association:
http://www.ce.org/shared_files/initiatives_attachments/111CEA_DTV_Cable_Compatibility.pdf