[Infowarrior] - FCC nixes MPAA bid for selectable output control

[Richard Forno]

FCC chair nixes MPAA bid for selectable output control

By Matthew Lasar | Published: December 30, 2008 - 10:49PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081230-fccs-martin-nixes-mpaa-bid-on-selectable-output-control.html

The holidays have been good for Hollywood, Reuters news reports, with  
sentimental pooch stories like Marley & Me boosting box office  
Christmas day receipts up $10 million from last year. But there's a  
lump of coal in the movie industry's stocking where its advocates had  
hoped for a gift from the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chair  
Kevin Martin says he won't back the Motion Picture Association of  
America's request for a waiver on the agency's ban on selectively  
blocking video outputs.

"I'm not supportive of moving forward with this MPAA proposal at this  
time," Martin told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. When  
Ars asked if the issue is now tabled for the Obama administration's  
FCC, the outgoing boss replied in the affirmative. "If another  
Commission" wants to deal with the question, "they will be able to,  
obviously, but I'm not supportive of it," he said.

We need protection

As Ars has reported, in early June the MPAA filed a request for FCC  
permission to work with cable and satellite video providers in order  
to hobble analog output of pre-DVD release movies in favor of "secure  
and protected digital outputs." Current agency policy forbids so- 
called "selectable output control" use limiting either analog or  
digital transmission.

MPAA argues that analog streams are insecure. They "either lack, or  
can easily be stripped of, protection measures," in the organization's  
words, and broadcast over them will "facilitate the illegal copying  
and redistribution of this high value content, causing untold damage  
to the DVD and other 'downstream' markets."

The MPAA contends that relaxing SOC rules will allow the studios to  
release movies over cable and satellite prior to their DVD release  
without fear of copyright infringement. "At least some segment of  
nearly every demographic would find this option attractive when unable  
to go to the movie theater," the trade group's Petition for Expedited  
Special Relief contended. "For example, physically challenged or  
elderly consumers who have limited mobility would have greater choice  
in movie viewing options. It would similarly benefit parents who want  
to see a new movie, but who cannot find or afford a babysitter."

MPAA filed the request on behalf of Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures,  
Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios, Walt Disney Studios,  
and Warner Brothers.

But critics of the proposal say that consumers have the right to  
expect that their video-related devices will function as they did when  
they purchased them. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and  
the advocacy group Public Knowledge—which seems to have Martin's ear  
these days—have argued that millions of applications could be affected  
by changing the FCC's SOC policy.

"The MPAA has not demonstrated why it should be permitted to disable  
the features and functionality of a consumer's lawfully-purchased HDTV  
set," three CEA Vice Presidents told the FCC in November.

Public Knowledge filed around the same time and argued that the  
disability count could get higher if you include DVRs "and other  
consumer electronics devices that rely on analog connections." These  
also will be "effectively turned off, even if the TVs also have  
digital inputs."
Astonishing!

MPAA has responded that SOC's detractors are living in the past. "At  
its core, the position of CEA is that technology should be frozen in  
time, and any new services that require advanced technology should be  
banned," the MPAA told Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein on  
November 25. "This position is quite astonishing, coming from an  
organization that in the past has advocated in favor of technological  
innovation."

Martin says that initially he was sympathetic to MPAA's arguments. "I  
certainly am interested in taking advantage of technologies that would  
allow for consumers to be able to watch first run movies in their  
home, earlier," he explained. But in the end it looks like PK won the  
argument.

"One of the issues that I certainly have pushed when I've been here at  
the Commission is that we should be able to have devices and they  
should should be able to be portable from network to network," Martin  
elaborated at today's conference. He cited the open device  
requirements in the recent 700MHz auction, wireless merger approvals,  
and set top box rule enforcements.

"And I don't want to undermine any progress that we've tried to make  
on that. I was concerned about that and wasn't ready to move forward  
with it in light of some of the concerns that were raised by the  
public interest groups."

The rest of today's press event focused on a variety of FCC-related  
loose ends that await Martin's successor. These include re-auctioning  
the agency's proposed public safety D Block, reform of the Universal  
Service Fund and intercarrier compensation rules, dealing with  
proposed fines against retailers for selling analog-only TVs without  
full disclosure, and resolving various cable carriage disputes—most  
notably the carriage fight between Comcast and the NFL Network.

The agency could conceivably deal with some of these questions in the  
next few weeks, but that's not likely given the departure of  
Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, which was announced at a  
brief Commission meeting held Tuesday morning.