[opendtv] Group Warns DVRs Endangered
- From: Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: undisclosed-recipient: ;
- Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 08:48:49 -0400
Group Warns DVRs Endangered
By Katie Dean
02:00 AM Jul. 28, 2004 PT
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments from the MPAA.
Television fans who like to choose when and where they watch their
favorite programs are in for a rude awakening next year when new copy
controls encoded in digital television streams will limit such
freedoms.
Broadcasters have been steadily moving from broadcasting content in
analog to digital format over the past several years, as required by
the Telecommunications Act of 1996. To protect this digital content
from piracy, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule
that digital television tuners recognize copy controls, called the
broadcast flag (PDF), encoded in content streams. Digital
video-recording devices would detect the broadcast flag, and the flag
would prevent users from making multiple high-quality copies of the
programs for illegal distribution. As of July 1, 2005, it would be
illegal to manufacture or import devices that can receive digital
programming without responding to the broadcast flag.
To fight the impending rule and to stoke backlash from TV viewers,
the Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this month launched the
Digital Television Liberation Project to guide people on how to make
their own personal video recorders from off-the-shelf parts. The
digital-rights group is encouraging people to buy digital TV, or DTV,
tuner cards for their PCs, and is distributing instructions on how to
build TiVo-like digital video recorders. The idea is to get people
hooked on the charms of time-shifting -- recording a program and then
watching it at a later time -- and to help them understand what they
would be missing once the broadcast flag rule goes into effect.
...
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64309,00.html
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