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May 14, 2002

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L.A. Times article on BPDG

Jon Healey at the L.A. Times has published a skeptical article about BPDG. The focus on DVD recorders is interesting; Healey's piece suggests that DVD recorders would probably encrypt recorded TV programming using some new encryption scheme. "A likely result, critics say, is that DVD recorders will automatically scramble the programs they record from local digital channels."

But the legislation itself can't alter how DVD recorders work. The key point is that it will be illegal for manufacturers to produce certain devices which enable certain uses. That doesn't mean that manufacturers will be able to devise easy alternatives to those devices. So the default result under the current proposal is that recording to DVD is simply prohibited entirely, because there is currently no "Approved Recording Method" which uses DVD.

DVD recorders are a great example of a consumer-friendly technology which can be used with digital TV today but wouldn't work under the proposed mandate. And, again, this is not because of some particular animosity toward DVD, but because of the attitude that it's the legal responsibility of the creators of technology to control how customers can use it. It's time we started posting some more quotations from the Betamax era to highlight the great antiquity of this point of view.

Posted by Seth Schoen at 10:29 AM