Digital TV's history in America: the DTV transition nearly cost the USA its technological freedom
Seth Schoen from the Electronic Frontier Foundation reminds us that the US digital TV transition that just took place was, for several years, Hollywood's best bet for infecting every device in your home with Digital Rights Management technology, giving itself veto power over the design of everything from video cards to networking protocols. This was the "Broadcast Flag" proposal, and the big studios and broadcasters promised that they would sabotage the DTV transition if they didn't get their way. The FCC rolled over and gave it to them -- and then EFF, the American Library Association and Public Knowledge sued them, demonstrated that they didn't have the jurisdiction to regulate hard drives and cable-connectors, and the studios never made good on their threat.
MPAA's Fritz Attaway said that "high-value content will migrate away" from television if the broadcast flag wasn't imposed; he told Congress that fears of infringement without a broadcast flag mandate "will lead content creators to cease making their high-value programming available for distribution over digital broadcast television [and] the DTV transition would be seriously threatened". Most famously, Viacom said thatInto the DTV era, with no broadcast flag mandate"[i]f a broadcast flag is not implemented and enforced by Summer 2003, Viacom's CBS Television Network will not provide any programming in high definition for the 2003-2004 television season. "
It's six years later and these threats have all fallen flat. This week, CBS will broadcast dozens of popular programs, like CSI, Without a Trace, Survivor, and The New Adventures of Old Christine, in high definition via over-the-air broadcast. So will all the other major networks. Digital TV also continues to feature popular movies with no DRM.
the latest
latest episodes
more and more, the destruction of Hollywood looks like a good idea.
what this DTTV transition has given many is lack of access to local television (even with converter boxes and antennas) and replaced them with religious broadcasts. I know of several who've lost all local channels but now have half a dozen 24 hr religious channels. Digital signal areas are much smaller and this dropout is not being reported well at all. No local broadcast means no emergency warnings among other things.
my local digital channels worked great before the official switchover date. Now I can't get any of the networks and the local PBS signal is much degraded... Lots of god channels and FOX though. WTF?
Whenever a company makes a threat that boils down to "Give us what we want, or we'll voluntarily go out of business" it's everybody's duty to call their bluff.
"high-value content will migrate away"
I think that ship has sailed. If it ever was in port to begin with.
It'll take the MPAA a little while, but eventually they will understand the need for DRM free content. Most primary music sources (now including iTunes) are DRM free. It took the RIAA a while to figure out it was doing more harm than good to the music industry.
Imagine if they would have withdrawn from cable television: a whole new and fresh generation of tv makers would be abundant right now!
I just love titles with highly charged rhetoric in them!
Technological freedom for whom?
Sounds like not a single broadcaster...those paying for this transition when they would have been just as happy leaving broadcasting in the analog world...wanted to continue broadcasting without this and the US gov't mandated that they not put it on.
As a publisher, it sounds like my freedoms were taken away.
I'm not disputing that this is a good thing for consumers (and most likely broadcasters from a pure $$$ perspective), but the right to make stupid decisions that cause your consumers to go elsewhere IS a freedom. One we seem to be taking away from people because it interferes with our own sense of entitlement. We both claim that the popular culture is lacking and below our standards, but demand that we be given unfettered access so that we can consume our hidden cravings.
Anyhoo...
Pirates! I'm telling you. Hollywood pirates taking over your television & hard drives and cable connectors. It isn't legal!! Sure, they got sued. But that's the oldest trick in the book. Let the other side think they've won and then sneak behind their backs and do your business anyway. Pirates! Aaghhh!!! They're after me.
@Clif Marsiglio:
They were perfectly free to stop broadcasting like they promised. They continued to broadcast.
Individual companies are still generally free to make stupid mistakes and put themselves out of business.
What they were prevented from doing was banding together and causing great harm to consumers well outside of their own industry.
The broadcast flag wasn't a stupid thing at all from the broadcaster perspective. It was quite cunning. If anyone was making a stupid mistake, it was the FCC.
Clif Marsiglio @6: I'm curious, which one of your "freedoms" was taken away?
Is it the one to freely enforce a state-granted temporary monopoly on art reproduction?
The one to resell content that somebody else produced?
Sounds like the only "freedom" taken from you is the freedom to screw consumers and artists in order to obtain a financial gain for yourself. Am I wrong ?
@Toyg --
See, this is where a lot of producers and consumers can't get together. The state granted monopoly is as much of a monopoly as the right to own property of any sort.
You like your car? It is an infringement of my freedoms that I would be locked away if I decide to take it to the store. No damage to the car, and I do it while you are away on vacation...heck, my using it might even keep someone else from hurting it. The wear and tear from using it is actually less than if it had just sat there...actually, I'm doing you a favor because it NEEDS to be started every now and then.
You'd probably find my scenario to be offensive to you, but when I was a kid, it wasn't uncommon for people I knew to do just this. These people could take their desire even further and want it codifed in a way that gives them even more 'freedom' to do as they wish, regardless of the others.
All properties are a state-granted temporary monopoly. The written word, a song, that tv show is no less tangible an idea than your car.
As such, we can claim any restriction of how we want to put our property out into the wild is our right within the scope of the state-granted temporary monopoly is taking away our freedom.
So yes, the ability to make stupid decisions and restrict your audience is a freedom I don't want to lose. I don't see anyone being screwed...they have every right to go elsewhere for their content (and can probably find something deeper and more meaningful than the crap on television...heck...as a consumer, I say DRM it all so there is an expiration date that even the creators of this work lose this crap after X amount of time!)
BoingBoing had a lot to do with keeping the airwaves free -- for that I am grateful.
Clif Marsigli @9
"no less tangible an idea than a car" - do I really need to point out that a song is actually less tangible than a car?
or that a car is a thing, not an idea?
or are you some sort of Platonist?
@Clif Marsiglio
Fallacy of division habit or are you really just a car thief?
High value programming? Name one high value program on network TV in the last 20 years that wasn't sports related.
By the mid 1980s when NBC was #1 it had fewer viewers than when it was dead last 5 years earlier. Shows that once got 12 to 18 ratings are doing good to get a 7.
Network TV as a source of high value programs is over. Don't hold your breath waiting for the next Shogun or Lonesome Dove.
@Ray Trumbull
I think the "high value" is referring to how much the sponsorship is willing to pay, not the quality of the programming.
*smirk*
Pfft. Name one high value program on network TV.
Clif Marsiglio:
You are entirely mistaken. You really don't understand the issue at all.
The broadcasters where not asking to be allowed to use a "broadcast flag". They can do that, all they like, without permission, right now. The only problem is my TV will happily ignore any "broadcast flag". Their broadcast flag is useless unless consumer electronic manufacturers are forced by law to respect their broadcast flag.
The broadcasters where asking that every TV, radio, computer, HDMI cord, etc., be *FORCED BY THE GOVERNMENT* to implement their broadcast flag DRM scheme! It would have given the government and the media companies full control, by law, full veto power on the design of every consumer electronic device. It would have inevitably created a massive government bureaucracy tasked with regulating virtually every consumer electronic item.
The EFF where fighting against government regulation, not for it. Don't try to use the Laissez Faire Capitalism arguement, because most of the time the EFF are firmly against government regulation.
I do tech support for one of the major satellite tv broadcasters, let's call them a 'direct' distributor. I'll say no more because they prolly troll the web looking for people saying discouraging words about them and in this economy I still need the work.
Our system already has limits on ppv and hd content. You can record it on your dvr, but they can de-authorize it in a heartbeat and make those ppvs expire after less than 24 hours. Everyday I get calls from irate customers who don't understand the policy and I have to apologize like hell. I want to tell them, "Hey get a Netflix account" but every call is recorded and monitored. I'm spied on for 'quality' and get relentless graded for it. Thing is I feel sorry for my customers, I truly do because it's such an overpriced, unreliable service, but it's not like we can lead a revolution and keep our paycheck.
I'm heartened by the fact that people are calling in to cancel their services in droves. I can't even down grade your services, I have to transfer you to some save our sales team who will hard sell you. It's amusing, but then people take their reality tv and soap operas and Lifetime movies very seriously.
I probably had a point to this, but it momentarily escapes me. It was prolly something to do with the fact that we take tv and movies way to seriously to begin with.
Clif, in the Broadcast Flag proposal, it would have been illegal to develop PC hardware such as hard drives, network cards and video cards without adding Hollywood-mandated DRM to them, overseen by the FCC. At a minimum, this requirement would have prohibited users from modifying their own devices, which means that all these commodity devices would have been required, by law, to be designed to thwart the development of open source drivers.
That's not freedom.
"...it would have been illegal to develop PC hardware such as hard drives, network cards and video cards without adding Hollywood-mandated DRM to them, overseen by the FCC."
Um, IF these were developed or sold in the USA.
Would there be enough of a market for these 'sans DRM' outside of the US? If so, would be end up with the same insanity where computers shipped without Windows already installed are priced more expensive that without?
It's interesting that I've seen no eulogies (yet) for the demise of broadcast analog TV. That experiment in democracy and social-engineering is now kaput.
If "the medium is the message" then what's the message from our analog sets now? Snow. Same as the last 60 years, but without the careful organization. And where does the snow come from? The universe. Aaaaah, at last.
Cory -- what hyperbole.
Over the air video capture cards would be required to respect the broadcast flag if they were to be given the encoding to receive the data.
I'm certain you will point to some draft pie in the sky wishlist and shout THIS IS NOT A DRAFT PIE IN THE SKY WISHLIST, but of course, it will be. And of course, some idiot politician will have asked for this along with some huge media conglomerate with no chance of ever getting passed, but this will not invalidate your point.
This is what I don't care for with the EFF / OpenSource crowd. The desire to dictate how others put their content into the wild. This isn't freedom, it is a dictatorship under a different name. But we all shape the language to be more accommodating to our principles.
Clif Marsiglio How are they taking away YOUR freedom?
You can do whatever you want with your content. Publish or not.
The fact that other people don't have to pay you money and can just copy your stuff has nothing to do with "freedom"
clif, i think you've got the bull by the wrong end.
Over the air video capture cards would be required to respect the broadcast flag if they were to be given the encoding to receive the data.
that is fine, IF YOU ASSUME that the airwaves are the property of the broadcasters.
V-Chip, broadcast flags, Janet Jackson's nipple. These guys really have those internet blinkers on - always have, seemingly always will.
And let's not forget HDCP, it wasn't just "hollywood" pushing for that steaming pile. And it sorta won... well, it didn't die.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP
V-Chip, broadcast flags, Janet Jackson's nipple.
That sounds like the lyrics from an unreleased Hedwig track.
Well done. Two problems have been solved: 1. How to spend another billion dollars. 2. How to make people in areas with weak signals suffer even more. The picture quality will now be good... with a 1 frame per minute rate and those fancy artifacts.
I live in a rural area and have yet to have found an antenna that restores my free OTA local channels. So much for the local news and EBS alerts. I guess if you are like me with only one vote on any given election then you don't count.