Build Your Own TV Without Broadcast Flags 283
doom writes "An account of an event sponsored by the EFF, a "roll your own television" build-in. The San Francisco Bay Guardian has coverage in an article entitled Build Your TV!". From the article: "According to the FCC, the flag is going to ease the nation's transition from today's analog televisions to tomorrow's high-definition televisions. What exactly does it mean for a government agency to "ease" the transition from one kind of TV signal to another? In this case, it seems to mean making the entertainment industry feel very warm and fuzzy inside." The EFF's efforts against the flag have been covered before on Slashdot.
Good Ideea (Score:1, Insightful)
What exactly does it mean... (Score:5, Insightful)
We've seen this before... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Kit TVs (Score:4, Insightful)
who are they pandering to? (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny the only thing the broadcast flag is meant to ease is the minds of the media fatcats.
Because they won't give up. (Score:5, Insightful)
In Europe, even after near-unanamous votes against software patents, they are still about to become reality.
The court merely ruled that the FCC did not have the implicit authority to order the flag. All that is needed is a lay giving the FCC the explicit authority. That kind of law is easy to purchase.
Re:Bush won't let this happen (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed, and about BIGGER corporations...
Re:Any Canadians know... (Score:2, Insightful)
1)Manufacture non-BF ready TVs in
2)Open a store at the border
3)...
4)profit!
Most people don't understand what the court said (Score:2, Insightful)
"But it was unclear whether the judges would strike down the FCC's 2003 rule, since doubts were also raised about whether the American Library Association and other opponents had legal standing to challenge the rule in court."
The judges may rule that these groups don't have legal standing to bring the suit, so it will take consumers to sue and most likely that won't be able to happen until AFTER July 1 when consumers can reasonably say that they have been harmed by the flag. No one can say they have been harmed by the flag until it goes into effect.
Re:Any Canadians know... (Score:2, Insightful)
but if you really want one(and yes I know the joke) - then 3) open online store
Anyone know if the US law would cover a small, indipendent, Canadian company that has no US presence, shipping un-flagged equipment into the US?
I'm sure we could find room for people like the guy in the article who makes cards for hdtv tuning that currently lives in the states.
Besides, I don't have the money or the channel list to warrant a HDTV purchase right now, but I will want it in the future to replace my current tuner.
Anyway...
Re:Courts (Score:5, Insightful)
What major backlash? There aren't enough people w/HDTV yet (nevermind HDTV+recorders) that the broadcast flag would matter.
People will get their HDTV+recorders and say, "oh, we can't copy that, it makes sense, there's no such thing as timeshifting and fair use!"
They were smart about the flag... They did it before HDTV became entrenched. That way there would be no backlash because no one would know any different.
Let them have their broadcast flag (Score:2, Insightful)
Then a short time afterwards it was bypassed and everyone lived happily ever after.
That's exactly what will happen with the broadcast flag. Let them have it. If the entertainment industry thinks this will achieve their objectives then let them have their illusions - it won't make a damned bit of difference at the end of the day.
This isn't about HDTV (Score:5, Insightful)
The way broadcast flags are mentioned its all about stopping HDTV programing from getting on the net. It makes it sound like we'll still be able to record our analog shows.
However, analog outputs will be soon be illegal on all television devices. Thus, this is about locking down ALL content.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
Re:Courts (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
And why do you think people will think "it makes sense" they can no longer record. For decades we've been able to record shows, and suddenly we won't be able to, why would we suddenly accept that. THAT makes no sense.
Re:surely this is unnecessary? (Score:2, Insightful)
I wonder if when you become a congressperson (gotta be PC
thankfully here in the UK I can't see something like this happening (at least in the near future).
Individual European Union member states are not allowed to mandate receiver requirements and any copy protection system would need to be agreed at a European level.
I watch the patent debate closely, if that goes the wrong way I assume the EU will crumble to corporate pressure just the US is starting to now
Re:This isn't about HDTV (Score:3, Insightful)
That's going to make TV awfully hard to watch...
OK, I know what you meant, but seriously, ultimately people have to watch it or listen to it, so the analog hole can never really be closed, only made more inconvenient.
Eventually, congress will require that loud noises and bright flashing lights happen at the end of all copyright-protected content, so that the people who just watched it won't be able to remember it. Remembering is copying, and copying is theft!
A suggestion: (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, they canceled one the exceptions ( farscape ), further reinforcing my decision.
That's the only way things will change: Vote with your cash, or in this case, your unwillingness to deal with their crap. You may think you *need* your TV, but you don't.
Re:I'm not going to take it anymore (Score:3, Insightful)
I saw that nice bumper sticker "Shoot your TV". After some thought, I realized that this was meant entirely seriously.
I do not have a TV (never had, never will), and I keep hearing people say "Yes, but I only watch nature documentaries and the news...".
Chaps, the TV is like heroin. You get drawn into it. You can't help it. It's like a TV in a bar. Even if you hate it, your eyes find it again and again.
Get rid of it.
You want to see a movie? Get yourself a nice big TFT (they're getting really cheap), and watch a DVD (or, better, Xvid) off your PC.
Re:Bush won't let this happen (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'm not going to take it anymore (Score:3, Insightful)
I have a TV but have nothing in the form of an aerial or lead in my flat, so i don't even get a slight temptation to watch it. the result? Sometimes i can be bored, but instead of watching mindless tv, i sit and read and/or educate myself about something. Not bad really.
Re:um, what? (Score:3, Insightful)
You might get sued by the RIAA for downloading songs off P2P. You might use fair use as a defense. However, if the Supreme Court ever upheld your defense, it would too become a right.
Re:Ease the transition? (Score:2, Insightful)
But the theory goes that content providers and broadcasters will make the switch to HD faster if they have more control over how their content is to be used by the viewer.
One of the big problems in rolling out HD has been the slowness of broadcasters to actually make the switch. I guess the FCC believes that the broadcasters will make the switch faster if they have an incentive to do so.
Re:I hope that's all it means (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, take the DVD player. The other day I wanted to show something to one of my kids quick as we were on our way out to return the DVD's we had rented. Put in the DVD and the usual junk starts up, so I...
Hit fast foreware : Operation not permitted.
Hit the "Next Chapter" button : Operation not permitted.
We were out of time, my wife was hollering at us to get going...
Hit the Stop button : Operation not permitted.
??? You mean I'm not even allowed to Stop playing, I have to watch it???
Fortunately the MPAA can't yet override the power button on the front of the player.
Yes, I have the hardware and software that would allow me to rip a DVD, strip it of all the crap, and burn a "perfect" copy to a blank DVD-R disk. But I shouldn't have to do that just to enjoy a movie the way I want to.
Re:Build your own tuner (Score:2, Insightful)
I have a feeling that it will not be easy to find someone who wants to sell theirs after the broadcast flag is in full effect.
ender-
TV "Broadcast Kits" (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I hope that's all it means (Score:3, Insightful)
Since this flag won't exist in 95% of the world (population-wise), do you really think major non-US companies like Sony won't produce any products without this flag?
Our neighbors-to-the-North, if no one else, will provide sufficient demand (and an easy place for us Northern US residents to go to get such products) to guarantee the existance of flagless TVs.
I expect that the rest of the world will want nothing to do with this BS, and, if the US courts don't outright shoot down the whole idea, Americans will end up paying more for the same products with the flag enabled. Or as an in-between step, we'll have something like we have now with DVD players, where most of them have a trivial means of disabling the flag (such as pressing "*11<MENU>27" or just telling the TV you live in Canada the first time you set it up).
Greedy Bastards (Score:3, Insightful)
The FCC wants to get broadcast TV off of it's current portion of the broadcast spectrum so that they can start selling licenses for telecomm use of those same frequencies.
They know that Hollywood will put more effort behind a system that "protects" the digital transmissions so that they don't wind up on the internet. With the backing of the big film studios, the FCC believes that it will be a shorter time until current analog TV is obviated and they can start selling those licenses.
LK
Re:I'm not going to take it anymore (Score:2, Insightful)
Or post on slashdot.
Anti-TV pseudo-elitist jerkwads, as parodied in the onion, are annoying enough, but internet hypocrites are just plain hilarious.
Do you REALLY think that posting on an internet messageboard like slashdot is ANY less a waste of time than TV?
BTW, play any RPGs? That'd just be icing on the cake.
The bottom line isn't whether you do this worthless thing or that other waste of time, it's what ELSE you do with yourself. At the end of the day, have you accomplished something you're happy about? Do you think that the things you've wasted time on during the day have seriously compromised your efforts to accomplish something worthwhile?
It's the same criteria I'd apply to ask whether someone has a drug problem.
Re:Upcoming DIY kit seminars: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bush won't let this happen (Score:3, Insightful)