Broadcast Flag II

Paul Davidson/USA Today on the broadcast flag: "Our belief is that digital TV will be far more restrictive," says Joe Kraus of DigitalConsumer.org.

Also, I am feeling uncomfortable about my previous post on BF, where I said it might cost up to $750 to upgrade to digital. To get more specific, an HDTV would cost that much, but an HDTV receiver for your current TV would be $400, and digital tuners are around $200. My point was that on top of having the content industry dictate to the electronics' industry what they can make, now and in the future, and what consumers can do with content, like the way we record it for time shifting, there were no benefits for consumers, and in fact many other costs like the required upgrades and the eventual requirement that everyone move to cable reception. Remember the last panel discussion at the DRM conference last spring, where Fritz Attaway of the MPAA said:

HDTV receivers are going to have to be able to process protected content. And that's totally separate and apart from the Broadcast Flag issue. People are not going to invest in an HD receiver only to watch over-the-air broadcasting. They are going to want to watch cable, they are gonna want to watch satellite, gonna want to watch DVDs, they are gonna want to watch premium content that is protected. All the Broadcast Flag would do is to say that off air content has to be rooted through a protected interface that is going to be there anyway because it needs to be there to render all of this other content that will be protected and consumers will not be able to watch, unless they have a device that can handle this kind of content. So there is no additional cost. The protection has to be there anyway to receive the other kinds of content.

Big assumptions there. First of all, not everyone is going to buy an HDTV set naturally, but if pushed unnaturally, they may be forced to some digital alternative, because they have no choice. And these digital solutions are not cheap. As noted in the pricing information about, there is additional cost. Most people now do not have HDTV sets or digital tuners (20 million as of last April, 2003 had it). It means that the majority still have to go out and buy it. Secondly, not everyone buys premium content (20% of US households are over-the-air consumers). And thirdly, the BF will be there "anyway because it needs to be there to render all of this other content"? Huh? Why? It only has to be there if Attaway, et al, gets the FCC to force it. It doesn't have to be there to render content. Content doesn't have to be digital, some could be digital and some could remain over-the-air analog.

I think he is arguing as though this is a foregone conclusion when it's not.

And what's the trade off? What do consumers get in exchange for these burdens, and what does the electronics' industry get, for becoming subservient to the copyright industry?

The broadcast flag presents many problems, and no benefits for consumers and users. As Derek Slater said yesterday: Burn the Broadcast Flag! Email the FCC and your representatives! Use Digital Consumer's or EFF's links (and remember to write your own words. This really matters and your legislators and FCC reps will take it seriously if you show you care about this by putting things in your own words.)

BTW, this is OT, but speaking of dirty tricks by the movie industry, I went to see Kill Bill the night before last with some friends. We agreed it was stylistically captivating, and had some great humor. Very retropolitan. But where's the plot? Girl is mad at the people who tried to kill her, so she invokes Matrix Redux-like revenge on them? Where are the characters? How do we care about the Umatino, when we don't know how she knows Bill, the grotesquely altered Daryl, or the rest of the murdering crew or what gives with the baby? Why should we care? What's the hook? It's kind of insulting to have us pay for a movie, and presume that the plot and characters, the second half of act II and all of act III will come later, when we pay for the second movie. Geez, man, throw us a bone here. 1 Star on the piracy meter.

Lost in Translation was so much more satisfying. Cool to hang in Tokyo for a bit, in an fantasy movieland kind of way. Characters, glitzy atmosphere, slow but interesting plot. I'd give it a 5 star on the piracy meter.

The Piracy Meter: if I pirated movies, this is how I'd rate them, as to what's worth clogging my dsl connection for 24-36 hours to get one. Kinda like making market predictions for things like elections.

Posted by Mary Hodder at October 19, 2003 10:31 AM