[Infowarrior] - MPAA at it again....

[Richard Forno]

Movie studios again demand HDTV disabling powers from FCC
Even the MPAA now concedes that its bid for selectable output control  
could force some consumers to buy new home theater gear. What we still  
don't have is a reasonable estimate on whether the 11 million figure  
bandied about is accurate. Nor do we know what the Genachowski FCC  
thinks about this mess.

By Matthew Lasar | Last updated September 2, 2009 6:22 AM CT

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/movie-studios-again-demand-hdtv-disabling-powers-from-fcc.ars
Hollywood's bid to force a yet-to-be-agreed-upon number of households  
to buy new home theater gear is back in business. The Motion Picture  
Association of America has once again asked the Federal Communications  
Commission for the right to selectively control output streams to the  
TV entertainment systems of consumers. "The pro-consumer purpose" (!)  
request "is to enable movie studios to offer millions of Americans in- 
home access to high-value, high definition video content," three MPAA  
biggies explained during a meeting they held with seven FCC Media  
Bureau staffers last Thursday.

Consumer groups, electronics makers, pro-consumer bloggers, and  
consumers, it should be noted, think this idea is a very stinky dog.  
So did former FCC Chair Kevin Martin. But that does not seem to  
dissuade the MPAA, whose principals just can't seem to let the issue  
go. What's interesting about the group's latest filing, however, is  
that it effectively concedes that the output changes it wants could,  
in fact, hobble some home video systems.

"The vast majority of consumers would not have to purchase new devices  
to receive the new, high-value content contemplated by MPAA's"  
request, the group assures the FCC. But first, a history of this  
controversial crusade.

No go with the flow
As we've reported for well over a year, in June of 2008 the MPAA  
petitioned the FCC for a waiver on a practice that the agency banned  
in its 2003 "plug and play" Order—messing with a video stream so as to  
disable either the analog or digital flow to a consumers' home HDTV/ 
DVR system. This is called "selectable output control." Hollywood says  
it wants to partner with cable companies to offer pre-DVD releases of  
big movies, but not unless they transmit through "secure and protected  
digital outputs in order to prevent unauthorized copying and  
redistribution." That means bleeping the analog stream, which MPAA  
worries is less "secure."

In the interviews we did with several MPAA officials, we tried very  
hard to get them to explain to us what exactly they want security from  
(naughty consumers trying to record the movie, perhaps?), but to no  
avail. What the trade group rather robotically emphasizes is that pre- 
DVD releases will benefit people who for various reasons can't get to  
theaters. "Physically challenged or elderly consumers who have limited  
mobility would have greater choice in movie viewing options," the  
group's filings on this issue say. "It would similarly benefit parents  
who want to see a new movie, but who cannot find or afford a  
babysitter."

But critics of the proposed deal want to know why the FCC should let  
the studios on whose behalf MPAA is petitioning—Paramount, Sony,  
Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers—limit  
the capabilities of home TV systems that consumers have already bought  
and installed. "The side effect," warns the consumer group Public  
Knowledge in an educational video it has put out on this question, "is  
that SOC would break all eleven million HDTVs in the US that don't  
have digital input. In essence, all the MPAA wants is to control when  
and how you watch the stuff you've already paid for."

Frozen critics
 From this point of departure came a quick he-said-she-said at the FCC  
about how many home video systems SOC would screw up. In mid-November,  
the Consumer Electronics Association, which not surprisingly also  
hates this idea, warned that if the FCC gave Hollywood an SOC waiver,  
20 million HDTV sets could cease to function as they did when they  
were bought by US consumers. PK's Jef Pearlman showed up at the  
agency's door a few days later and called this a low estimate, since  
it didn't count DVRs and other devices that might get their input  
exclusively from analog connections.

Not to be outdone, the MPAA returned to the FCC's HQ in late November  
with the rejoinder that its critics were, in essence, Luddites.

"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," a small crew of MPAA folk and supporters explained at a  
meeting with former Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "This position is  
quite astonishing, coming from an organization that in the past has  
advocated in favor of technological innovation."

Finally we asked then Commission Chair Kevin Martin at one of his last  
press conferences what he thought about SOC. "I'm not supportive of  
moving forward with this MPAA proposal at this time," Martin told us  
in late December. But when Ars pressed if the issue was now tabled for  
the Obama administration's FCC, the outgoing boss said yes. "If  
another Commission" wants to deal with the question, "they will be  
able to, obviously, but I'm not supportive of it," he explained.

And so, not surprisingly, SONY Pictures was once more into the breach  
by early February, trying to get interim Chair Michael Copps to see  
"the advantages of expanded consumer choices in the marketplace" that  
would supposedly come with a waiver on SOC. There is no evidence that  
Copps, who was totally preoccupied by the DTV transition at the time,  
gave this issue more than a moment's thought.

Not to worry
MPAA's latest filing takes issue with PK's 11 million number, noting  
that a comment submitted by the group last September doesn't cite a  
source for the figure. But then it continues: "Even if accurate, the  
Public Knowledge figure is vastly overinclusive because it counts  
homes where consumers do have at least one television set with  
protected digital inputs (even though they also may have older sets in  
other rooms in the house). In fact, the vast majority of consumers  
would not have to purchase new devices to receive the new, high-value  
content contemplated by MPAA’s waiver request."

Our translation: SOC could screw up plenty of home theater equipment,  
but that's ok, because those households have backups with digital  
inputs. The MPAA filing does not explain why any device that a  
consumer bought with their good money should be hobbled in this  
instance. Nor does it counsel the FCC on how to help those whom MPAA  
effectively concedes would have to buy a new device. Nor are we any  
closer to a reasonable estimate of how many households would face this  
unfortunate result.

And don't ask us what FCC Chair Julius Genachowski thinks about this  
mess because we don't know, yet.

Read the MPAA's filing (PDF)