Why DRM on Video Will Persist: DVD-CCA Targets Kaleidescape (Again): "As we've said many times before, DRM is not about preventing piracy, it's about giving entertainment companies control over disruptive innovation. Here's the latest example: tomorrow DVD-CCA (the entity that controls the CSS encryption standard for DVDs) will be voting on an amendment to the CSS license that is designed to put a disruptive innovator, Kaleidescape, out of business (read Kaleidescape's letter about it here). read more... »
Satellite TV Hacking Illegal But Not a $100,000 Offense, Court Says:
Users of illicit decoding technology who have hacked into DirecTV satellite signals are not liable under a certain provision of the Federal Communications Act that calls for hefty, $100,000 fines, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said section 605(e)(4) of the act cannot be charged against individuals who have altered or purchased reformatted smart cards to acquire DirecTV for free. That statute, the court ruled, was meant to financially injure companies that produce and sell such pirating technology and was not directed at end users as DirecTV alleged read more... »
Blogging WIPO: No Diplomatic Conference on the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty in 2007: "A crucial meeting that will determine the future of the proposed WIPO Broadcasting Treaty has been underway this week at WIPO. WIPO' s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was scheduled to meet from 18-21 June, and then hold a Preparatory Conference on June 22, to agree the rules for the Diplomatic Conference scheduled for November. But at 8:45 pm last night, the U.S. delegation took the floor and said that it did not support moving forward to a Diplomatic Conference this year, on the grounds that there was so little agreement on a proposed text and key elements of what a Broadcasting Treaty should contain. Many Member States agreed that there was no prospect of coming to a consensus by week-end, including Brazil, India and the Africa Group. That's clear from the number of alternative proposals put forward by Member States in the closed-room negotiations that have been taking place this week, which are recorded in two non-official 'non-papers' that were circulated yesterday evening. After almost 10 years of negotiations, there is litlle agreement on fundamental elements of a treaty. However, despite that, several countries, including Japan and the European Community, support continuing work on the proposed treaty. IP-Watch has more detailed coverage of last night's breakdown of discussions here.
So what does all of this mean? It means that the intergovernmental Diplomatic Conference scheduled to take place in November 2007 won't be going ahead. But it's not at all clear that the proposed Treaty is off WIPO's Agenda. read more... »
DVD Home Media Server, We Hardly Knew You: "In April, a California court ruled that Kaleidescape did not violate its contract with the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) by distributing a device that rips and plays DVDs. But now the DRM licensing authority, which is mostly controlled by movie studios, is planning to change the contract and more clearly forbid DVD ripping. read more... »
20th Century Fox v. Cablevision: Remote Computing Under Seige: "Most people assume that consumers have a fair use right to time shift television to watch at a later time. As a result, lots of companies now sell digital video recorders (DVRs) that enable you to do this, including TiVo, and it's generally accepted that selling DVRs is perfectly legal (of course, the movie studios still don't like it, as demonstrated by their lawsuit against ReplayTV).
Should the answer be any different if a cable company gives subscribers the ability to record programs to a remote server, rather than to a hard drive sitting in the DVR in their living room? read more... »
Cable Cos. Fighting Innovation in Next Gen Devices: "A new generation of cable TV devices are on the way, but cable companies are working to ensure they can control innovation in novel features and limit your ability to use TV content.
Back in 1996, Congress directed the FCC to foster useful, competitive alternatives to cable providers' proprietary set-top boxes. That led to the creation of the CableCARD, which has helped open the digital cable set-top market to devices like TiVo Series 3 and Windows Media Center. Proprietary boxes still have a leg up on CableCARD devices because the latter can't access two-way services like Video-on-Demand or Switched Digital Video channels that cable operators plan to deploy, so a CableCARD successor is now in the works. read more... »
Stop the Broadcasting Treaty Flip-Flop!: "
EFF and others have worked hard to fix the proposed Broadcasting Treaty from
endangering innovators' and users' rights - and last year many countries,
including the United States, said they would support a better treaty. Now a
new WIPO draft once again endangers innovators' and users' rights. read more... »
Sony's Latest DRM Backfire: "Sony, one of the companies that brought you the Sony-BMG 'rootkit' copy protection system for CDs, has once again used DRM to inflict inconvenience on its legitimate customers.
New Sony DVD releases like ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ and ‘Casino Royale’ come with copy protection technologies that makes the movies unplayable on some DVD players — including reportedly at least one Sony machine!
Along with the DRM locks typically used on DVDs, Sony is using a system called ARccOS that is supposed to make copying more difficult by hiding corrupted data on the disc. But while plenty of DVD copying software is sophisticated enough to bypass the corrupt data, many players are not. read more... »
EFF: Paper: Who Controls Your Television?:
» Download a PDF of this paper [213K]
Today, consumers can digitally record their favorite television shows, move recordings to portable video players, excerpt a small clip to include in a home video, and much more. The digital television transition promises innovation and competition in even more great gadgets that will give consumers unparalleled control over their media.
But an inter-industry organization that creates television and video specifications used in Europe, Australia, and much of Africa and Asia is laying the foundation for a far different future -- one in which major content providers get a veto over innovation and consumers face draconian digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on the use of TV content. At the behest of American movie and television studios, the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) is devising standards to ensure that digital television devices obey content providers' commands rather than consumers' desires. These restrictions will take away consumers' rights and abilities to use lawfully-acquired content so that each use can be sold back to them piecemeal. read more... »
Financial Times Tech Blog: "A broadcast flag for Europe?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has blown the whistle on what it says is a sinister plot by Hollywood studios to take control of digital televison in Europe.
According to the EFF, new product standards being developed by the Digital Video Broadcasting project would limit customers' ability to record and store digitally broadcast films and television shows by introducing strict digital rights management into the next generation of IP TV devices. read more... »