Dvb-cpcm

[digitaladvisor]

The broadcast flag concept was developed by Fox Broadcasting in 2001 and was supported by the MPAA and the FCC. A ruling in May 2005 by a US Court of Appeals held that the FCC lacked authority to impose it on the TV industry in the US. It required that all HDTVs obey a stream specification determining whether or not a the stream can be recorded. This could block instances of fair use, such as time-shifting.[citation needed] It achieved more success elsewhere when it was adopted by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), a consortium of about 250 broadcasters, manufactures, network operators, software developers, and regulatory bodies from about 35 countries involved in attempting to develop new digital TV standards.

An updated variant of the broadcast flag has been developed in the Content Protection and Copy Management (DVB-CPCM). It was developed in private, and the technical specification was submitted to European in March 2007. As with much DRM, the CPCM system is intended to control use of copyrighted material by the end-user, at the direction of the copyright holder. According to Ren Bucholz of the EFF, which paid to be a member of the consortium, "You won't even know ahead of time whether and how you will be able to record and make use of particular programs or devices". The DVB supports the system as it will harmonize copyright holders' control across different technologies and so make things easier for end users. The CPCM system is expected to be submitted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in 2008.

This is not a purely hypothetical example [- the "timebomb" can strike ANYTIME]: Americans who bought Microsoft Media Center PCs to record The Sopranos last year got a nasty shock when, halfway through the season, HBO activated a use-control flag analogous to USI that made it impossible to save their recordings to DVD. People who bought their Media Centers to library the Sopranos purchased a device fit for this purpose in September, but useless come December, because there was a hidden restriction flt on ag waiting to be triggered by the cablecaster. Likewise Americans who received PVRs from Comcast and used them to record Six Feet Under discovered that their libraries of the show were remotely deleted just prior to the DVD release -- the rightsholders were able to reach into the public's sitting rooms and take away the recordings they'd made.

Are there indicators for Australia on this Content Protection and Copy Management for DVB ?

digitaladvisor

[evil_josh]

This is one of the reasons I use eyetv.

From http://support.elgato.com/index.php?_m=kno...barticleid=2729

"EyeTV doesn't support any broadcast flags or other methods of restricting the use of television programs.

"Such methods have been encouraged by the television and movie industry - to prevent the recording or sharing of certain shows - but they are not required by law. Legislation does vary country by country, but at the present time there are no such restrictions in the locations where EyeTV is available.

"Therefore, EyeTV and other Elgato software will ignore any flags or other voluntary DRM methods - if you can watch a program, you can record, edit or share it as you see fit."

If they are ever forced to implemented such a scheme I will be stopping my upgrades at that point.

[evil_josh]

I'm curious to see how such a system would be rolled out in Australia, where time shifting a FTA program (ie recording a program and watching it later) is perfectly legal. I would see this as a violation of my right to consume the content as I see fit within the bounds of the law.

[sold]

I'm curious to see how such a system would be rolled out in Australia, where time shifting a FTA program (ie recording a program and watching it later) is perfectly legal. I would see this as a violation of my right to consume the content as I see fit within the bounds of the law.

I can't see how it would be any different to the situation with DVDs. That being you are allowed to format shift them, just aren't able to circumvent the copy protection on them in the first place to do so (legally).

[evil_josh]

I can't see how it would be any different to the situation with DVDs. That being you are allowed to format shift them, just aren't able to circumvent the copy protection on them in the first place to do so (legally).

It has to be different because format-shifting DVDs (whether region coded or not) is still illegal in Australia, whereas time shifting of an FTA broadcast is expressly permitted in the legislation. Thus a system that prevented timeshifyting of FTA would not be in accordance with the legislation and would voilate your rights as a consumer.