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| Rune__ | Kailen's post posted on: 6/22/2005 12:44:04 PM his post was transferred from the GOR forum Thought it was dead, huh? No such luck. After having been struck down by the courts earlier this year because the regulation would be overreaching the powers allocated to the FCC by Congress, a rider has been tacked onto an appropriations bill which is being introduced in subcommittee today that may allow the broadcast flag to be passed undebated and unnoticed when it is introduced in the full committee tomorrow. What is this broadcast flag thing, anyways? (from eff.org) Today, you can use any device you like with your television: VCR, TiVo, DVD recorder, home theater receiver, or a PC combining these functions and more. If the FCC's broadcast flag mandate [takes] effect, some of those capabilities would have been forbidden. Responding to pressure from Hollywood, the FCC had adopted a rule requiring future digital television (DTV) tuners to include "content protection" (aka DRM) technologies. All makers of HDTV receivers would have been required build their devices to watch for a broadcast "flag" embedded in programs by copyright holders. When it comes to digital recording, it would be Hollywood's DRM way or the highway. Want to burn that recording digitally to a DVD to save hard drive space? Sorry, the DRM lock-box won't allow it. How about sending it over your home network to another TV? Not unless you rip out your existing network and replace it with DRMd routers. Kind of defeats the purpose of getting a high definition digital signal, doesn't it? Ok, so? What does that mean exactly? By the end of 2006, it is likely that all over-the-air television signals will be in digital format. With a <$100 adapter, your current TV should recieve these signals just fine, so don't worry about that. What you should worry about is your ability to record, time shift, format shift, or capture these broadcasts. With the broadcast flag in place, all of these digital signals will contain a piece of data telling your digital reciever or recording device whether or not you're "allowed" to record the broadcast, and if so, what are the limitations on what you can do with that recording? Imagine setting up your TiVo (or similar recording device) to record an interview and performance of your favorite band on a talk show while you're at work. You come home after a long day, looking forward to seeing the spot you recorded. When you go to access it, you realize that you set your TiVo to record the wrong channel and you wound up with 30 minutes of The Price is Right instead. 'No problem,' you think, 'I'll just look for it online. It's bound to be on the best fan website.' However, when you go to the website, you realize that very few of the TV spots that the band has done in the US since the implementation of the broadcast flag are even available, and the one you meant to record isn't there. Why? Because while you may have been able to record that specific show to your own digital recording device, anyone who might have wanted to transfer that recording to their computer hard drive or upload the recording to the internet would not be able to. Sounds like a pain in the butt. What can I do? If you live in one of the following states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin You have a Senator on the Appropriations committee. Use this form (https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?page=UserAction&cmd=display&id=145) to send your Senator an email, or look up your Senator's phone number here (http://www.publicknowledge.org/resources/us-senate-approps-109) and give them a call telling them that you are a constituant and you oppose the Broadcast Flag rider on the Appropriations bill. It might not seem like it, but if enough constituants speak up, then the bill becomes a liability for the Sentator and s/he is less likely to vote for it. Sounds good, but I don't live in one of those states. Is there anything I can do? Certainly. Distribute this alert widely in the next 24 hours. (Text version including all HTML links, for easy Copy/Paste: http://users.hanson.net/lamenta3/broadcast%20flag%20alert.txt) Encourage friends and family members living in one of the listed states who enjoy catching up on their soaps after work to take 2 minutes to fill out and send the form email linked in the section above. If you're technically savvy and have a little cash to spare, you might want to build your own digital video recorder that will ignore the broadcast flag if it is implemented. Information regarding that can be found here (http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/). There are links on the left side of the page leading to plenty of information regarding homebrew PVRs. Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. -Ernest Hemmingway |
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