Consensus at Lawyerpoint: MPAA attorney outlines enforcement options

March 27, 2002

[News]
MPAA attorney outlines enforcement options

Fritz Attaway of the MPAA has distributed a list of policy alternatives for the enforcement of the BPDG's standard.

His alternatives include a "marketplace license." This may refer to a policy change in which terrestrial broadcasts are encrypted and then TV equipment manufacturers obtain a license to the encryption technology -- which includes licensee obligations, of course.

Most alternatives rely upon a statute or regulation. If the above is corrent, then the "marketplace license" alternative relies on existing legislation, like the DMCA, and need not include any new technology mandates. Encrypting terrestrial broadcasts has been an extremely unpopular idea, and it's clear from the meetings and conference calls that the MPAA members in BPDG assume that the enforcement mechanism of choice is either an FCC regulation or legislation passed by Congress.

Posted by Seth Schoen at 06:41 PM

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What is the BPDG?

In the year 2006 all over-the-air television will be digital. This is pretty hot stuff: crystal-clear pictures, ear-popping audio and interactive features for days. But as the technologists give, the studios take away.

The Broadcast Protection Discussion Group is an obscure group of Hollywood studios and technology companies that are negotiating a "consensus" for any gadget or code that can touch the studios' product. Once they're done, they want to go to Washington and ask Congress and/or the FCC to give their "standard" the force of law.

So what? Well, this is a radical departure from the way it's usually done. Usually, bright nerds invent something cool and the entertainment industry has a nervous breakdown and runs around telling everyone that the sky is falling (Marconi got sued over the radio, Sony got sued over the VCR, and it took a near miracle to get movies out of the studios' vaults and onto television). People pick up on the tech and all the interesting ways that it can be used as a creative tool, and gradually the entertainment industry realizes that a new day has dawned and gets its act together, starts shipping product for the new media, and takes home yet another squillion dollars.

This time around, the entertainment industry wants to take away all that sloppy, inefficient fooling around where technology companies try out lots of different approaches, where garage inventors go from obscurity to posterity under a hail of customers, where you and I get to invent amazing new uses for our stuff that a bunch of engineers in a board-room never would've thought of in a million years. This time around, everything not forbidden is mandatory. MORE...