U.S.'s FCC hits hard on piracy

Computers and televisions to contain Digital Rights Management technologies

Small news, big revolutions. Forget about privacy being among the most sacred rights of the people: political lobbying is trying to muzzle anything that might harm the interests of a chosen few. The latest blow struck by democratic United States of America navigated easily through the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the very same entity that keeps extending copyright durations and all that jazz.
This time the matter concerns U.S. manufacturers: starting from 2005, they will be compelled to equip every new computer and TV set with Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies. The decision was taken by the FCC, and it is potentially fraught with important consequences for computer users.
This decision comes in direct and explicit reference to what U.S. media have labelled as the Napsterization of TV. With the expansion of digital TV and the diffusion of new recording devices, in fact, TV and movie producers are afraid that viewers can now share any sort of materials all too easily.
The idea is to allow digital TV viewers to record TV programs but deny them the possibility of uploading those recordings to the Internet or any untrustworthy environment, i.e. any environment not trusted by the producers.
From a technical standpoint, the project approved by the FCC foresees the insertion of a specific code in every digital broadcast. The code would be recognized and interpreted by new TVs and recorders in order to limit user possibilities to those acceptable to the owners of the program.
Extension of these rulings to computers comes as an obvious consequence of the convergence - almost complete - of these two media entailed by the advent of digital TV. However, this extension to computers is what troubles most of those who are currently analyzing the FCC ruling. They are worried that the code, in addition to controlling TV programs, could easily be used to control anything running on a computer, from applications to files downloaded and shared. For the moment the FCC ruling only applies to computers equipped with digital tuners, but this device is going to gain widespread diffusion in the next few years.
According to several associations, having Hollywood dictate what computer manufacturers and software developers can and cannot put in their devices and programs is quite dangerous and a worrisome precedent. The Electronic Frontier Foundation chimed in and declared: "Consumers will pay for a technology that won't stop piracy but will harm us all."
Jack Valenti, the perennial chairman of MPAA - the association among the most influential studios - voiced an opposite opinion. He claimed that this is no less than "a great victory for consumers."
Perhaps. And yet, having someone else control what I can and cannot do looks like a strange victory to me.

Publication Date: 2003-11-16
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3351