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

Who Controls Your Television? Who Controls Your Television?  Nurgled writes "The EFF, reportedly the only consumer rights organization to be granted membership of the Digital Video Broadcasting consortium, reports that TV and movie industry representatives have been pushing for DRM in the DVB technologies. This in itself is not entirely unexpected, but these talks have been going on in closed meetings. The EFF itself has been blocked from reporting on this until now as a condition of being allowed to attend. The proposed technologies allow rights-holders and broadcasters to severely hamper your ability to make use of broadcast television content, including the ability to retroactively blacklist any devices that consumers may already own that act in ways undesirable to the rights-holder or broadcaster. The EFF concludes that public interest and consumer rights advocates must fight back." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 4:37:40 PM

ORG to enlighten music industry on DRM's limitations. ORG to enlighten music industry on DRM's limitations. Readying a white paper The Open Rights Group (ORG) is developing a new paper to inform the music industry about the technical suitability of Digital Rights Management (DRM) as an aid to enforcing copyright. [The Register - Music and Media] 3:59:26 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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