TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: "Broadcast Flag", was Re: My New DVR From Cable One

Re: "Broadcast Flag", was Re: My New DVR From Cable One

Tony P. (kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net)
Tue, 8 Mar 2005 17:29:35 -0500

In article <telecom23.429.3@telecom-digest.org>, jkelly@newsguy.com
says:

> On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:35:53 -0000, pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader)
> wrote:

>> Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com> writes:

>>> Nope. He was just given given advance warning. New recording equipment
>>> is supposed to recognize a "do not record" flag that gets sent
>>> over-the-air along with the signal. Periodically a couple of the

>> Except that it isn't sent over the air, and the flag is part of their
>> licensing agreement with macrovision. Cable one was just passing along
>> FUD.

> Not FUD. The flag is sent over the air, and it has nothing to do with
> Macrovision.

> Unfortunately, Hollywood pulled a hold-up. It threatened to derail the
> DTV transition by withholding "high-value content" from over-the-air
> DTV, unless the FCC imposed "content protection" (aka DRM) on all
> future televisions and related devices. The idea was that content
> owners would implant a "broadcast flag" into DTV programming. When
> devices detect the flag, they have to "protect" (i.e., lock up in DRM
> jail) the programming.

> Sadly, the FCC bought it. Thanks to an FCC ruling, as of July 2005,
> it will be illegal to manufacture or import DTV tuners unless they
> include DRM technologies mandated by the FCC.

> See more at: http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/

But if you read the FCC documents about it, they make it clear that
anyone with a little technical knowledge can easily defeat the DRM
functions.

The courts are going to slap down on the FCC anyhow. First they pushed
the V-Chip, now the DRM. I can see the FCC devolving into what it
should have been in the first place, a bandwidth manager.

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