MPAA, Others Seek Changes to Cable-Ready DTV Regs
By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/7/2004 7:02:00 AM
Various sides in the debate of standards for plug-and-play cable-ready digital-TV sets are asking the Federal Communications Commission for a host of changes.
Hollywood, represented by the Motion Picture Association of America, wants the FCC to rethink its decision not to require sets be equipped for "selectable output control" that would allow pay-TV providers to turn off interfaces between analog and digital devices.
The rules for plug-and-play sets, issued in September, generally prohibit use of selectable output controls as a violation of home recording rights. Hollywood had sought the right to control outputs on consumer devices as a way to plug the "analog hole," which lets digital content escape copy protection restrictions by being converted to analog, which so far isn’t susceptible to copy protection measures, and converted back to digital.
Although the FCC said it would consider waiving the ban on a case-by-case basis for new business models, the MPAA argues the waivers would be meaningless if set makers haven’t already built selectable output control technology into sets.
MPAA also asked that subscription video-on-demand be placed under the "copy never" restrictions as are pay-per-view and standard VOD rather than "copy once" as SVOD is now. Starz Encore opposed Hollywood’s initial attempt to have SVOD classified as copy-never on grounds that copyright law requires all subscription services to by classified copy-once. SVOD, allows viewers to buy a series or package of shows for a fixed price that can be watched at any time.
DirecTV is also seeking changes. Miffed that satellite TV operators must follow plug-and-play rules despite having no role in originating the specifications, is asking the FCC not to accept any future standards from CableLabs, the cable industry’s research arm and a main developer of plug-and-play rules.
On the other side of that issue, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association wants tougher standards for third-parties that want to compete with CableLabs as certifiers of plug-and-play compliant equipment.
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