[opendtv] Re: News: DIRECTV Sued Over HDTV Picture Quality
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:38:39 -0400
At 6:33 PM -0400 9/21/06, Stephen W. Long wrote:
Ah, but there might be grounds to sue the ATSC (and their sponsoring
companies) for knowingly promoting a flawed system.
The system IS what it is. And a government agency approved it.
So I doubt that the ATSC could be held liable for providing a system
that generally meets the criteria established by the FCC.
There's been a bunch of noise in the past week about officials at the
FCC ordering certain reports buried or destroyed. This is not a rare
occurrence. It is the normal mode of operation for a bureaucracy that
REACTS to legislative and regulatory mandates, rather than guiding
communications policy in the U.S. The FCC did not have the budget,
talent or resources to lead the development of a proper digital
broadcast infrastructure for the United States. So they turned the
"hen house" over to the foxes. In so doing they ALSO established
basic criteria for the system that drew upon the available resources
at the FCC and tools they had to actually implement the system. And,
to be fair, they did not have the desire to take on the broadcasters
and start a political battle that necessarily would have required
Congress to change the ground rules.
Bottom line, there is so much blame to spread around that even the
best lawyers in the country would have a hard time pinning the blame
on any entity that has financial resources worth going after.
The more likely outcome is that the government will proceed with the
subsidized receiver program, then someone will notice that they do
not work as well as NTSC. This will be sufficient grounds to begin an
investigation, putting the 2009 switch-over on hold. When it is
learned that the system is fundamentally flawed there will be a move
to develop a new system that will leapfrog all of the existing
technologies. It might be ready for deployment by 2020...
Regards
Craig
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