Who Controls Your Television?

[Bobdrakke]

Saw this at Slyck, drm strikes again but on a drocanian scale

 

http://www.eff.org/IP/DVB/dvb_briefing_paper.php

 

EFF went to DVB meeting and new proposals are

 

elaborate television DRM scheme called Content Protection and Copy Management (CPCM). Its unparalleled restrictions include:

 

* Enforcing severe home recording and copying limitations. CPCM will allow content providers to apply copy restriction labels to broadcast streams. For example, a program could be marked as "Copy Never." In turn, your DVRs and others devices receiving the signal will have to obey and forbid copying even for home use. A content provider could opt to allow recording but still enforce a multitude of restrictions on copying to other devices.

 

* Imposing controls on where you watch a program. Even if you are given permission to move a program to your laptop or other portable devices, "geography controls" may kick in and stop playback once you leave home or a particular locale. These restrictions may be enforced using tamper-proof GPS receivers built in to your devices. CPCM can also be used to block sending video to yourself over your own home network or the Internet, among other things.

 

* Dictating how you get to share shows with your own family. CPCM can be used to examine, for instance, the frequency with which devices are connected to a personal network and determine whether your sharing is within an "Authorized Domain" Absurdly, DVB spent significant time arguing over what happens to a digital video in case of a divorce!

 

* Breaking compatibility with your devices. You may have already invested in new high definition displays and receivers that rely on component analog connections or unrestricted digital outputs, but CPCM will allow the studios to arbitrarily block these connections. In other words, individual copyright holders can turn your gadgets into oversized paperweights. CPCM- restricted media will also be able to carry blacklists and revoke compatibility with particular devices that don't enforce Hollywood's restrictions sufficiently.

 

 

Implications

None of these restrictions need to be revealed in advance--you won't even know ahead of time whether and how you will be able to record and make use of particular programs or devices. The restrictions can be changed at the whim of the rights holder. It may be that today you can record your favorite program and transfer it to DVDs for long-term storage. But next week, you could be prevented from recording or archiving to DVD.

 

Hollywood bills the intent of CPCM as "protect[ing]" and "enab[ling] business models," but, more precisely, they want to be able to curtail personal uses of television content that may disrupt their current business models. They also want to make you pay again and again to make legitimate uses of lawfully-acquired digital television content. For example, you've already paid for your cable subscription, but instead of being able to "time-shift" your favorite show to watch it later on the device of your choice, content providers want the power to force you to buy that show again on DVD or through another delivery mechanism.

[Ayur]

Wow. Scary. Sounds like the internet-radio-rape bill going through. Coincidence?

[Agozer]

The MAFIAA is hard at work again, I see.

[Lucandrake]

The second those controls get hacked, I'll laugh, the second the gps gets hacked, I'll laugh, and the second this crap gets denied, I'll laugh.

[Haldrie]

This is just stupid. Our rights as consumer being thrown away. Hollywood can kiss my...well you get the idea.

 

As far as standard video this doesn't bother me any since I can easily record a live video stream via Composite or S-Video cables to my computer using a USB capture device. I manged to manipulate it so I can even record Macrovision streams with it since the included software denies recording when it detects Macrovision. I can basically take what ever is being sent to the device and let it do the MPEG encoding for me while taking that raw stream and saving it to a file on my computer.

 

For HD...that's gonna really suck.

[ken_cinder]

US television has a rather large market share up here in Canada, and our laws WILL smack this the f**k down. I bet once the industry see's that A: It won't be allowed to happen here in Canada B: It would be a HUGE revenue loss from the Canadian market, it simply will not fly unless they simply push it on US content providers only and not the backend stream itself.

[Shibathedog]

This is where the FCC should do their job and say "FLOCK NO!" Its stuff like this they are supposed to protect us from and prevent.

 

That bill that proposes shutting down all SDTV broadcasts and resorting to HDTV only (I mean the one that basically says if you dont own an HDTV you get no TV) Is something they should deal with, it alienates too many people. I agree this has to happen eventually, but you cant just force all these people to have to buy new TVs and stuff.

[Ayur]

Too bad the FCC is in the pocket of Big Corporation.

[Robert]

That's because the American Government is part of Big Corporation.

[Wizard]

That's because the American Government is part of Big Corporation.

Badum-tssh

[Haldrie]

That's because the American Government is part of Big Corporation.

And the sad part about it is that we're letting it happen (yes I'm American). There are just too many ignorent people here that don't see what's going on in front of their own eyes. Fortunatly I'm not one of them but I still don't have much power to do anything. One person may be able to change the world but that's only if others will stand up with him/her.