It was the butler, using a knife in the library. You don’t need a game board to guess that our story somehow involves Hollywood, the government (specifically the FCC), special interest groups, and a bunch of lawyers; all of whom were unable to control their insatiable greed.Approximately the size of a credit card, CableCARD is (well soon to be “was”) a plug-in card that allows U.S. consumers to view and record digital cable television channels on digital televisions and video recorders without the use of other equipment such as a receiver box provided by a cable television company. For many consumers, the biggest advantage of CableCard was not having to use the cable company’s receiver in order to view high-definition (HD) material. It meant that you could hang a (properly outfitted) television on the wall without the use of that darn cable company box and still get HD programming. Mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, its sleek installation, ease-of-use, and a multitude of other benefits – you simply had to admire the progress CableCard technology was making on behalf of the consumer. Some of you may not even be aware that CableCard “ready” televisions were widely available until last summer (2008).
Background (thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) http://www.eff.org)
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the FCC to clear the way for useful, competitive alternatives to your cable company’s proprietary set-top box while still ensuring that you can’t get channels like HBO without paying for them. In the governmental proceedings surrounding this issue, the FCC required all cable companies to make available CableCARDs, which enable anyone to offer an alternative to set-top boxes. However, with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in effect, Hollywood made sure that these technology developers could not lawfully build devices that receive content through digital inputs unlocking the digital rights management (“DRM”) unless first obtaining their permission.
With the FCC’s mandate, Hollywood required all future digital television (DTV) tuners, CableCard, and other technologies (not yet introduced) include “content protection” (aka DRM) technologies, particularly for HD programming content. The challenges arose when it came to how the devices were installed in your home and to the issues involving digital recording!
Unless you were connected using HDMI cabling, high-definition content viewing would not be permitted on your television. TiVO, DVRs, etc. were also facing similar issues. Want to burn that HD recording digitally to a DVD to save hard drive space? Sorry, the DRM lock-box won’t allow it. How about sending it over your home network to another TV? Not unless you rip out your existing network and replace it with DRMd routers.
The Battleground (The “FLAG”)
How was DRM going to be accomplished? Creatively (and a little “Big Brother” oriented), manufacturers creating these new devices would be required in insert circuitry in their components (televisions, etc.) that would monitor for a “flag” embedded in programs by copyright holders. For instance, if Hollywood tells the broadcast (cable, satellite, etc.) companies to mark a show as “allow only one generation,” then your CableCard (other other device) had to obey. It would also require restricted digital outputs (e.g., HDMI/HDCP and DTCP), so that content can only be transferred to or displayed on devices that obey DRM. Devices must also be capable of purposely reducing resolution of programming (“down-rezzing”) when using outputs other than HDMI such as component outputs.
Introduce the lawyers. First up – ALA v. FCC (American Library Association v. Federal Communications Commission). In a unanimous decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the broadcast flag, the FCC rule that would have crippled digital television receivers.
The court ruled, as Electronic Frontier Foundation had argued, that the FCC lacked authority to regulate what happens inside your TV or computer once it has received a broadcast signal. The broadcast flag rule would have required all signal demodulators to “recognize and give effect to” a broadcast flag, forcing them not to record or output an unencrypted high-def digital signal if the flag were set. This technology mandate would have stopped the manufacture of open hardware that has enabled us to build our own digital television recorders.
“Plug and Play”
Subsequently, the FCC held “Plug and Play” proceedings to put certain caps on DRM.
- No copying restrictions can be put on any unencrypted over-the-air broadcast content carried via cable or satellite.
- Satellite and cable providers must allow at least one generation of copies for “pay television, non-premium subscription television, and free conditional access” programming, though they can prohibit all copying of video-on-demand, pay-per-view, and subscription-on-demand programming.
Of course, these caps provide only a little comfort; since the time of the VCR, TV fans have been technically able to time-shift using a device of their choosing and copy recorded content to any other device. Now those abilities can be taken away.
- The FCC prohibited use of “selectable output control,” a technology that allows cable or satellite providers to block certain outputs on a program-by-program basis. For example, cable and satellite providers could force you to use DRM-restricted outputs or buy their equipment by blocking the analog outputs on which many existing digital devices rely.
- The FCC prohibited down converting (reducing resolution) of over-the-air content carried via cable or satellite. Like selectable output control, down-converting can be employed to encourage use of restricted digital outputs instead of unrestricted analog outputs. Unfortunately, the FCC left the door open for down-converting of other programming.
What Can I Do?
Not much. Special Interest groups control Washington’s agenda. You and I… well we simply don’t have the clout – that is until we get really irritated and by then it may be too late. Personally, I plan to focus my leisure efforts on good books and great music. Looking back, there’s something to be said in my parents’ comments that TV was going to destroy our brains. Now I understand.
Although the cable companies didn’t support them very well, I personally like (better said > “liked”) CableCards, particularly with wall-mounted TVs. Much cleaner installation than dealing with locating the CATV “box”, finding a cableTV technician capable of addressing the technical aspects was challenging. With the public demanding lessor and lessor TV prices, manufacturers are forced into “cheapening” the units they produce. Oh well…
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Thank you. Please send link when it is up. We would like to visit. Wishing you all well, I was going to say, “break a leg,” then realized you were an M.D.!
~ fred