Tuesday, March 13, 2007

EFF: Paper: Who Controls Your Television? 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. Consumers would never choose this future, so Hollywood will try to force it on them by regulatory fiat. DVB's imprimatur may put restrictive standards on the fast-track to becoming legally-enforced mandates, and existing laws already limit evasion of DRM even for lawful purposes. In effect, private DRM standards will trump national laws that have traditionally protected the public's interests and carefully circumscribed copyright holders' rights. Hollywood has long pursued this goal in the U.S., but its schemes in DVB have taken place behind the public's back and outside of scrutiny by elected officials. In this paper, we will summarize and expose Hollywood's plan. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the only public interest group to have attended DVB's closed technical meetings. As a condition of participation, DVB imposed restrictions on our ability to report on these meetings. Now, after key parts of DVB's new DRM specification have been sent to the European standards body and may soon be provided to other EU regulators, we are releasing this paper to help consumer organizations and EU regulators understand the significant public policy implications of various DVB work items.   CPCM: A System to Control Innovation, Competition, and Television Viewers  Despite record profits in recent years, American movie and television studios have not relented in their cries that new technologies are a mortal threat to their industry. They sued to block the VCR and the first mass-market Digital Video Recorder (DVR) in the U.S., and, having failed to stamp out recording in those efforts, they have increasingly turned to creating restrictive technical standards backed by law. 4:46:30 PM

Action Alert: Reform the PATRIOT Act and Stop the Abuse of Surveillance Powers! Action Alert: Reform the PATRIOT Act and Stop the Abuse of Surveillance Powers! The FBI has blatantly abused a key PATRIOT Act provision and knowingly violated the law to spy on Americans' telephone, Internet, and other personal records, as documented in a report recently released by the Justice Department. Congress must rein in this egregious behavior, but it can't stop there -- the Bush Administration's unprecedented pattern of disregarding the law stretches far beyond the examples in this report. Tell Congress to defend your privacy now. Before PATRIOT, the FBI could use so-called National Security Letters only for securing the records of suspected terrorists or spies. But under PATRIOT the FBI can use them to get private records about anybody without any court approval as long as it believes the information could be relevant to an authorized terrorism or espionage investigation. According to the Justice Department's Inspector General, the FBI's misuse of its authority included issuing NSLs to spy on people who weren't the subject of any existing investigation whatsoever. The FBI also lied to Congress and underreported its use of NSLs by many thousands. Worse still, the FBI has ignored its own lawyers' advice and intentionally evaded PATRIOT's thin bounds, improperly requesting and obtaining personal records through so-called "exigent letters" that Congress never authorized. That's only a sampling of the horror story painted by the report, and, had Congress not ordered the Inspector General to review the FBI's activities last year, these abuses might have never been revealed. From the moment PATRIOT was passed, we said the NSL power was ripe for abuse and unconstitutional, and it's clearer than ever that Congress should repeal PATRIOT's expansion of NSL powers and reform the PATRIOT Act as a whole. Moreover, Congress must broadly investigate the Administration's use of surveillance powers, including the NSA's massive and illegal domestic spying program. Congress and the American public have been kept in the dark about such clear violations of the law and Americans' privacy for far too long. Immediate and thorough oversight hearings are necessary to uncover the truth and hold the Administration accountable. Take action now. [EFF: Deep Links] 4:28:38 PM

CDT Opposes Bill Expanding Pentagon Domestic Data Mining. CDT Opposes Bill Expanding Pentagon Domestic Data Mining. CDT and other civil liberties groups are urging Congress to reject legislation that would exempt the Department of Defense from a key provision of the Privacy Act. The little-noticed amendment, already included in the Senate version of the Intelligence Authorization Act, would permit government agencies to disclose information on US citizens to the Defense Department. Such language could pave the way for entire databases of information to be transferred to the Defense Department without a clear purpose -- in turn opening the door to greater data mining by military agencies. [Center for Democracy and Technology] 4:07:21 PM

CDT Calls for Reform of National Security Letters. CDT Calls for Reform of National Security Letters. CDT is calling on Congress to require judicial approval of FBI efforts to access the sensitive records of US citizens. Recent revelations regarding violations in the use of so-called "national security letters" have shown that no matter how many internal controls the FBI adopts, self-certification in not sufficient when the government is obtaining the sensitive financial and communications records of citizens. CDT believes Congress should reform the law and adopt a reasonable system of judicial checks and balances. [Center for Democracy and Technology] 4:04:02 PM

EFF Kills Bogus Clear Channel Patent. EFF Kills Bogus Clear Channel Patent. Patent Busting Project Wins Victory for Artists and Innovators San Francisco - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has announced it will revoke an illegitimate patent held by Clear Channel Communications after a campaign by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The patent covered a system and method of creating digital recordings of live performances. Clear Channel claimed the bogus patent created a monopoly on all-in-one technologies that produce post-concert digital recordings and threatened to sue those who made such recordings. This locked musical acts into using Clear Channel technology and blocked innovations by others. However, EFF's investigation found that a company named Telex had in fact developed similar technology more than a year before Clear Channel filed its patent request. EFF -- in conjunction with patent attorney Theodore C. McCullough and with the help of Lori President and Ashley Bollinger, students at the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic at American University's Washington College of Law -- asked the PTO to revoke the patent based on this and other extensive evidence. "Bogus patents like this one are good examples of what's wrong with the current patent system," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "We're glad that the Patent Office was willing to help artists and innovators out from under its shadow." The Clear Channel patent challenge was part of EFF's Patent Busting Project, aimed at combating the chilling effects bad patents have on public and consumer interests. The Patent Busting Project seeks to document the threats and fight back by filing requests for reexamination against the worst offenders. "The patent system plays a critical role in business and the economy," said McCullough. "Everyone loses if we allow overreaching patent claims to restrict the tremendous benefits of new software and technology development." For the notice from the Patent Office: http://www.eff.org/patent/wanted/clearchannel/notice_of_intent_to_cancel.pdf For more on EFF's Patent Busting Project: http://www.eff.org/patent Contacts: Jason Schultz Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation jason@eff.org Theodore C. McCullough Registered Patent Attorney theo702000@yahoo.com [EFF: Breaking News] 3:55:43 PM

American Studios' Secret Plan to Lock Down European TV Devices. American Studios' Secret Plan to Lock Down European TV Devices. EFF Exposes Standards Jeopardizing Innovation and Consumer Rights San Francisco - An international consortium of television and technology companies is devising draconian anti-consumer restrictions for the next generation of TVs in Europe and beyond, at the behest of American entertainment giants. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the only public interest group to have gained entrance into the secretive meetings of the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), a group that creates the television and video specifications used in Europe, Australia, and much of Asia and Africa. In a report released today, EFF shows how U.S. movie and television companies have convinced DVB to create new technical specifications that would build digital rights management technologies into televisions. These specifications are likely to take away consumers' rights, which will subsequently be sold back to them piecemeal -- so entertainment fans will have to pay again and again for legitimate uses of lawfully acquired digital television content. "DVB is abetting a massive power grab by the content industry, and many of the world's largest technology companies are simply watching," said Ren Bucholz, EFF Policy Coordinator, Americas. "This regime was concocted without input from consumer rights organizations or public interest groups, and it shows." Despite recent record profits, American movie and television studios insist that new technologies could ruin their industry. In past battles against innovation, these same studios sued to block the sale of the VCR and the first mass-marketed digital video recorder in the U.S. Having failed in those efforts, they have now turned to creating technical standards that, when backed by law, are likely to restrict consumers' existing rights and threaten the future of technological innovation. With DVB, the plan begun by entertainment companies in the U.S. has now gone global. EFF's report is aimed at alerting European consumer groups and consumers about the dangers posed by the proposed standards and providing informational resources for European regulators. "DVB members' active indifference, even hostility, to user rights is shameful," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen. "When American studios ask for regulatory support for restrictions pushed through the DVB Project, public officials must stand up for consumer rights, sustain competition and innovation, and tell Hollywood to back off." For the full report: http://www.eff.org/IP/DVB/dvb_briefing_paper.php EFF's 2005 Submission to the U.K. Department of Media, Sports and Culture: http://www.eff.org/IP/DVB/dvb_critique.php Contacts: Ren Bucholz Policy Coordinator, Americas Electronic Frontier Foundation ren@eff.org Seth Schoen Staff Technologist Electronic Frontier Foundation seth@eff.org [EFF: Breaking News] 3:53:46 PM

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