Who owns your TV?

Posted by nuxi on 2009-Jun-15 at 03:42:22 in Computers (Login to reply)

My cable provider, Comcast, has sent out a letter saying they will be dropping all analog cable service and going digital only in October 2009. With this change I will no longer be able to recieve cable tv without needing equipment from Comcast.

If only there was some part of the government that was supposed to be protecting my ability to use my own equipment on a cable TV system. Thats not wishful thinking, its actually part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The only problem is that the FCC considers CableCARD to be a perfectly cromulent solution to this.

The FCC is perfectly capable of truely enforcing the provisions of federal law that require the system to be accesible by end user owned equipment. The content providers will of course claim that they can't possible provide digital content without some form of protection. They've been doing so about digital TV since atleast 2003 when CBS stated:

If a broadcast flag is not implemented and enforced by Summer 2003, Viacom's CBS Television Network will not provide any programming in high definition for the 2003-2004 television season.

Here is a hint: today CBS and everyone else are broadcasting high definition digital content without the broadcast flag. Although it was't FCC that called their bluff, they fell for it. You can thank the EFF and ALA for stepping up and blocking the broadcast flag in court. Thanks to their efforts, there is no DRM in digital broadcast television.

The content companies use the same line to promote the idea that DRM is a necessary aspect of digital cable. This is the same message and the same bluff as before. The FCC needs to step up and actually require that the system be accesible in a DRM-free way to end user devices.

Consumers should be able to build their own DVRs that directly record the digital cable signal, but because of the failure of the FCC to protect their rights as consumers this isn't possible.