Say it Ain’t So Tivo – Tivo is a Bedfellow of the MPAA
They say politics makes strange bedfellows. It can also be said that greed at the expense of customers makes strange bedfellows. Well earlier this year the MPAA asked the FCC for permission to unilaterally implement “selective output controls.” In other words, they want to reach into your home and turn off analog component outputs on cable and satellite set-top boxes. This is all to keep you from pirating movies that the MPAA plans to release over cable and satellite. After all, you guys have been doing nothing but “stealing” from the member studios since the creation of the VCR. Aside from that, every person with analog outputs is a possible pirate – even if you buy their product. You could characterize the MPAA position as – consumers can’t be trusted with fair use. In any event, the plan to introduce HD movies doesn’t sit well with local theater owners.
You might think that services that have direct contact with customers, like DirecTV, or that sell devices that permit time shifting, like Tivo, would oppose the actions of the MPAA. You would be wrong! One could infer they agree that their customers are potential pirates as well. If they didn’t think their customers were capable of the worst, they wouldn’t have a desire to pay lawyers to support the MPAA. Amazingly, Tivo supports the waiver even though it concedes it “is not yet persuaded, the Service is, indeed, a new business model.”
Most disappointingly, Sony Electronics, the company who fought the MPAA and secured the right to own a VCR (well a betamax) now favors keeping the analog signal from customers. How far we have gone, huh?
So, Who Sides with the MPAA against Customers?
(If you want to read their filing, just click on their name)
Those in Favor of Consumers
Consumer Electronics Association
Home Recording Rights Coalition
I suppose to have these two organizations filing comments opposing the MPAA is better than no one – and their briefs are pretty strong. The Home Recording Rights Coalition says “the FCC’s giving MPAA members the unbridled and non-reviewable discretion to turn off recordable interfaces will allow them to do what neither the Congress nor the courts have tolerated since the Betamax case: to disable technology simply because it supports home recording by consumers.” That is spot-on. This may be a not so disguised threat that to grant the waiver is to invite a lawsuit over the validity of the regulation and authority of the FCC.
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