FCC Considers Mandating HDTV Copy Protection

HeavenlyWhistler writes "The Washington Post reports that the FCC will make a ruling this month on whether or not to mandate that all HDTV receivers implement copy protection when a 'broadcast flag' is detected in the received television signal. Movie and TV studios are pushing for this in an attempt to limit consumers' home-recording rights. An October 8 article states that CBS, under orders from Viacom CEO Mel Karmazin, has threatened to stop all HDTV broadcasts unless the broadcast flag is approved. While the comment period on the proposal (Docket 02-230) is over, the FCC web site will still let you submit comments. The EFF also discusses this issue."

Broadcast flag, aka...

[arvindn]

Evil bit. And we all thought it was just a harmless April fools' joke. :-P

RFC3514 Compliance

[worst_name_ever]

FCC sources have also revealed a last-minute amendment to the proposed ruling which would require all HDTV broadcasts to comply with RFC3514 [ietf.org].

No broadcast flag needed

[hudsucker]

If the broadcasters want to discourage people from copying movies off their channels, they could just alter the movies so that no one will want to copy them!

For example, they could insert advertisements every 15 minutes. Delete more of the movie so that it will fit into the time slot. Edit the movie to change dialog and obscure the naughty bits. Put a distracting logo on the screen while it is playing. Run ads for upcoming shows on the bottom third of the screen. Squeeze the credits and run voice-over for other shows. Cut the sides off the movie so you can't see the entire picture at one time. Interrupt the show (but never the advertisements) for "breaking news".

If they did these things, I hardly think that they would having any piracy problems to worry about.