[Action]
EFF calls on public to fight broadcast flag

EFF has announced the Digital Television liberation project, calling on the public to build and aquire as many non-broadcast-flag-compliant legacy devices as possible before the July 1, 2005, effective date of the broadcast flag regulation.

As part of this project, EFF will be teaching people to build their own personal video recorders (PVRs) with HD capability and no content-control restrictions. These devices will continue to work (and may lawfully be given away or sold) after the broadcast flag rule goes into effect next year. Unlike some contemporary commercial PVRs, they will not impose any technological restrictions on how you can use your recorded programming, and they will facilitate upgrades and enhancements. The initial focus of the PVR effort is on the impressive MythTV project, which already has DTV capability plus features that compare favorably with commercial PVRs. MythTV is a free software/open source project developed by Isaac Richards.

We hope that the widespread availability of this information -- and the necessary hardware -- will help all interested parties avoid becoming subject to the broadcast flag restrictions.

[Action]
EFF comments on co-chairs' report

The EFF has submitted its comments on the co-chairs' final report; got it in last night at two minutes to midnight! If you or your organization would like to sign on to this, email Seth and he'll hook you up.

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Comments on the Final Report of the
Broadcast Protection Discussion Group
May 29, 2002

Abstract

Below, please find the comments of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its co-signatories in response to the report of the co-chairs of the Copy Protection Technical Working Group's Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the foremost technology-oriented civil liberties group in the world. It is in this light that EFF has taken a keen interest in the proceedings of the BPDG, which present a threat to civil liberties. The BPDG's objective is to write a legally mandatory "standard" that will undermine public policy interests, fair use, First Amendment rights, and the innovation that is the sweetest fruit of a competitive marketplace.

We hope that readers of the Co-Chair's Report will find in this briefing, compelling evidence of the dangers presented by the BPDG recommendations and will recognize them as the self-interested aspirations of a small, partisan group seeking to write an anti-competitive law that protects its commercial interests at the public's expense.

The BPDG "process" has been rife with acrimony, arbitrariness and confusion, to an extent that cannot be fully ascribed to mere haste. EFF believes that the failings of the BPDG process stem directly from BPDG's efforts to cloak a inter-industry horse-trading exercise in the trappings of a public undertaking, with nominal participation from all "affected industries." In reality, the representatives were hand-picked by the conveners of the BPDG to minimize any dissent, as is evidenced by the high degree of similarity between the original proposal brought to the group by its conveners and the final report that the co-chairs unilaterally present herein as the group's findings.

Throughout the process, the absence of any formal charter or process afforded the co-chairs the opportunity to manipulate the rules of the group to suit their true purpose while maintaining its illusory openness, as when the scope of the group's discussions was summarily expanded to encompass all unauthorized redistribution of feature films, as opposed to unauthorized redistribution over the Internet.

MORE...

[Action]
Hell Bent for "Consensus"

The BPDG is ready to draw its "consensus" to a close, no matter how little actual consensus prevails within its ranks. The co-chairs have just circulated their consensus-at-any-cost schedule:

Monday, May 6:

Deadline for any further questions/comments on proposals from 5C/CIG/MPAA (Table A criteria and compliance/robustness requirements) and Philips (Table A criteria).

Tuesday, May 7:

Deadline for proposals to include protection technologies on Table A (see summary above)

Thursday, May 9:

Deadline for any necessary parties (i.e., not you, not us -- we're not part of the "consensus") to confirm/reaffirm proposed technologies meeting indicated criteria.

Wednesday, May 15:

Deadline for comments on May 10 circulations.

Friday, May 17:

Circulation of final report

No more BPDG meetings, then -- the BPDG will present its final report to the Copy Protection Technical Working Group shortly after the 17th, and then it's off to the lawmakers, to gleefully legislate away our fair use rights and open source.

We're not giving up, though! The EFF will file comments on each stage of this, will follow this process to Congress and the FCC. We will be at the CPTWG meetings and in the press, helping our lawmakers to make the right decision.

Any interested party can file comments, you know, just by joining the BPDG mailing list.

[Action]
Les Vadasz Stands Up to Senator Hollings
Back in the good old days, we thought that Senator Hollings had backed off on the SSSCA and that Hollywood would merely sneak it in through mini-SSSCAs like the BPDG's "consensus."

We were privileged, then, to watch Intel co-founder Leslie Vadasz stand up and speak the truth in the Hollings Hearings. Never mind that he was pooh-poohed by Hollings and his cronies, he stood up and provided a role-model for other tech execs. The EFFector from that week let Les know how much we appreciated his bravery:

Leslie Vadasz, one of the founders of Intel, had the chips to show up at Senator Fritz Holling's hearings last week and let Congress know that Intel, an Amercian company that pours $13.5 billion dollars into the U.S. economy every year, wants the freedom to independently negotiate the specifications for its equipment with the studios, without Congressional intervention.

This attitude is something we need to encourage! Senator Hollings conducted his hearings as a private discussion between the studios and the gadget companies, without any representation from consumers or even civil liberties organizations. The closest thing we have to an advocate in these critical proceedings are the electronics, computer and software companies.

[Action]
The Hollings Bill and the SSSCA
Last week's EFFector alert on the Senator Hollings' CBDTPA has some tasty bits on where the BPDG fits in to the universe of technology mandates.

The CBDTPA, Hollywood and Holling's bid to strangle the American technology industry, is just the latest salvo. Over the past year, the Copy Protection Technology Working Group has convened the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group, which has been laying down the "consensus" on new digital television devices for a captive audience of representatives from electronics, software and computer companies.

These profoundly undemocratic proceedings sacrifice consumer rights, free speech and innovation on the altar of Hollywood's hysterical technophobia.

The CBDTPA promises a world where useful features would be eliminated if the possibility for their misuse existed, such as:

* limits on "format-shifting," for example, the ability to create mix-CDs of music you've paid for;

* controls built into hard-drives that would allow files to be labelled as "unmovable," so they could not be backed up, or moved to another machine, nor could the drive be effectively optimized;

* restrictions on the manufacture and distribution of devices and programs that can play unrestricted formats, such as MP3 audio and DivX video files.

Senator Hollings, called "The Senator from Disney" for his close ties with Hollywood money, continues to push for technology mandates, federally imposed specifications for technologies that outlaw legitimate functionality in order to control illegitimate uses. It's the technological equivalent of requiring that crowbars be made of foam-rubber on the grounds that metal ones may be used in the commission of burglaries.

[Action]
How to join the BPDG e-mail lists
The BPDG mailing lists, called bpdg-tech and policyg are run by License Management Incorporated of Morgan Hill, CA. (LMI is run by John Hoy, who also runs the DVD CCA. Their business seems to lie in administering, under contract, license agreements for copy control technologies.)

The main BPDG list, bpdg-tech, is intended for technical discussions. There is also a "parallel enforcement group," (policyg) which discusses how BPDG's recommendations can acquire the force of law. The two groups are notionally distinct but have strongly overlapping membership and work extremely closely together. On March 27, they shared a single telephone conference call, with the BPDG co-chairs handing the call over to Fritz Attaway of the MPAA (who's been leading the "enforcement" efforts).

To be added to either e-mail list, simply write to reflector@lmicp.com (which is a human being). In your message, indicate whether you want to subscribe to bpdg-tech, policyg, or both.