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Gary Shapiro and the CEA take a stand
We try not to get too political or alarmist here on Engadget -- especially when it comes to draft legislation that's yet to make it far in congress -- but Gary Shapiro and the group he represents, the CEA (you may have heard of them?), are taking a stand against big content in America. Sounds like someone's hearing all the whining we (all) do about the overly restrictive DRM and fundamentally adversarial posturing the content industry has consistently taken against consumers and their devices. A release issued by the CEA at Shapiro's behest calls for the immediate passage of bill H.R. 1201 (the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2005) by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, on behalf of the HRRC (Home Recording Rights Coalition). Shapiro's on a crusade now, people, to tackle what he perceives as some very serious issues plaguing the industry today, like big content's apparent enforcement of copyright as property law, and the "gross extension of copyright protection" keeping work from entering the public domain. Whether H.R. 1201 is actually going turn up roses we don't yet know, but it's not like there's anything to thing to stop the content companies -- and the CEA's many members -- from lobbying against this bill, especially megacorps like Sony that play on both sides as content and device maker.[Thanks, Alex C]
Cable downconverting illegal under new bill
As reported by 1080eye, Congress' DTV bill would not allow cable companies to downgrade digital channels to analog broadcast, meaning cable customers with analog televisions would need to upgrade to digital set top boxes as well. My reaction to this is it's a real non-story. The cable companies don't want to broadcast in analog, first of all it's insecure, (look at all the "special" boxes you probably get email offers for daily) and it uses a lot of bandwidth they'd love to have for more Internet, VOD and HDTV offerings. Plus it's cheaper for them when a customer wants to upgrade/downgrade service, you just flip a switch instead of sending a technician out to the home to change the filter at the pole.Take a look at the next flyer you receive, in most areas the cable company is offering a discount over analog cable pricing in order to move digital boxes and their assortment of additional features into the home. They are more than ready to pull analog support as soon as possible. This could be reported in multiple ways, if the bill did not have such a provision, I'm sure there would be an op-ed column ranting about how Congress is in the cable companies pocket by forcing people with older TV's to get cable TV. I think it's better that it be across the board to avoid confusion, DTV is coming, and you'll need a new digital set, or a set-top box of some kind to get television reception, period.[Via HDBlog.net]
