Build your TV!

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.sfbg.com/39/22/cover_fcc.html>

San Francisco Bay Guardian News

  THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY
Mar. 2 - Mar. 8, 2005* Vol. 39, No. 22


 Build your TV!
As the FCC and the entertainment biz get ready to end home recording as we
know it, a bunch of radical geeks are working on a solution or two.

By Annalee Newitz

'ALL I WANT  is to make a high-definition copy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
save it on a DVD, and loan it to my friend," says Sarah Brydon, looking up
from a long table covered with half-built computers. These sound like the
words of a science fiction nerd, not a revolutionary. But Brydon is a new
breed of protester - and she's expressing her discontent with the U.S.
government by building a television.

 She's one of a dozen consumer activists who have gathered on a Saturday
morning in late January for a high-definition television "Build-In" at the
Mission District office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (where I
work). Part computer hardware nerdfest, part hell-raising political action,
the Build-In is a high-tech protest of a new Federal Communications
Commission regulation called the "Broadcast Flag."

 According to the FCC, the flag is going to ease the nation's transition
from today's analog televisions to tomorrow's high-definition televisions.
What exactly does it mean for a government agency to "ease" the transition
from one kind of TV signal to another? In this case, it seems to mean
making the entertainment industry feel very warm and fuzzy inside.

 The Broadcast Flag is designed - poorly - to stop people from putting
high-quality recordings of TV shows on popular file-sharing networks like
BitTorrent. In reality, it will give the government an unprecedented amount
of control over what we do in our own homes with recordings of HDTV. The
flag is supposed to stop mass copying and infringement, but it will also
stop most consumers from perfectly legal activities like saving HD copies
of shows for personal use.

 Past generations of media activists protested government and industry
control of TV content. They battled FCC censorship, denounced market grabs
by massive content conglomerates like News Corp., whose bland, mainstream
programming turned a diverse media landscape into The O'Reilly Factor and
7th Heaven reruns. Those activists nourished independent TV content on
local cable access channels, where they could talk openly about radical
politics or get naked on a whim.

 Now the Broadcast Flag has alerted a new group of media guerrillas to
another way in which government and industry control pop culture: by
locking down the devices that receive, copy, and remix broadcast signals.
And these activists are responding by building independent technologies
that don't bend to the will of the FCC or MGM.

 The televisions created at the Build-In are also computers, and they
contain a TiVo-like device called a personal video recorder (PVR) - you can
use them to pause a show, record it, sample it, and even save a copy to
DVD. Using the TV she builds today, Brydon won't have any trouble loaning
her friend a copy of Buffy.

The television liberation front

By noon every surface in the EFF office is covered with computer guts:
multicolored ethernet cables lie in snarled piles all over the floor, hard
drives occupy precarious positions near half-eaten bagels, TV antennae poke
into the air, and exposed circuit boards are tenuously connected to
monitors whose output isn't always good. These TVs are going to rock, but
getting the software running perfectly is a pain in the ass.

 Celebrated consumer gadget blogger Phillip Torrone is bouncing around the
room, interviewing everybody with his iPod for a Podcast about building
televisions. He's flown down from Seattle just for the Build-In. "Tell me
about this machine!" he says excitedly, thrusting the little white device
at audiovisual geek Gregor Menasian, who has packed the last bit of open
space with a computer full of extremely sweet components: quiet fan,
capacious hard drive, fast CPU.

 As the two of them talk, EFF special projects coordinator and attorney
Wendy Seltzer snaps photos of an error message on Menasian's monitor.
Seltzer, who helped organize the Build-In, wants to be sure that accurate
reports of glitches go to the hackers who wrote the software everybody's
using today to turn their computers into HDTVs with built-in PVRs. Called
MythTV, it's named for the "mythical convergence box" gadget-crazy
futurists often predict will finally combine TVs, DVD players, Web
browsing, and stereos in one simple machine.

 What has galvanized this group - made up of TV fans, civil liberties
activists, and politically minded hackers - is outrage at what the
Broadcast Flag will do to the future of innovative, crazy-dream devices
like MythTV. After the mandate goes into effect July 1, it will be illegal
for anyone in the United States to manufacture a device that records
high-definition television unless it's built to obey a special signal - the
flag - emitted by stations broadcasting HD shows. The flag will tell PVRs
and other equipment whether they're allowed to copy a show onto some other
medium, like a DVD. In short, broadcasters and content owners will actually
be able to control your recording habits.

 Let's say, for example, that it's a couple of years from now, and your
TiVo (bought anytime after July 1 of this year) has recorded the excellent
Marx brothers movie Animal Crackers, which was just broadcast on TNT in HD.
Tomorrow you're getting on a plane to Australia, and you'd like to save a
copy on DVD to watch on your computer during the 15-hour flight.

 You're entitled to make a personal copy under federal copyright law, so it
should be no problem. And in fact, it was no problem back in the days of
analog broadcasts and VCRs. But with the Broadcast Flag in place, TNT can
send out a signal that tells your TiVo not to make HD copies of Animal
Crackers. So when you burn that DVD and put it into your computer somewhere
over the Pacific, you get a bunch of garbage. The FCC has just stolen your
rights.

 Think of it this way: if the Broadcast Flag applied to VCRs, it would, in
effect, allow you to tape shows but not necessarily take the tape out of
the VCR. And you'd likely be forced to erase your show in order to tape the
next thing.

 Certainly there may be broadcasting companies  that refuse to send out the
flag, or that send out a flag saying "go right ahead and copy this." But a
company like Paramount, which owns the rights to Star Trek, is unlikely to
allow them to do so, for fear that letting people make copies will undercut
its ability to sell syndication rights to Spike TV and UPN. Networks like
CBS aren't going to want to let their shows out of the box either - they
don't want to lose control of their intellectual property. For years we've
taken for granted our ability to record television programs to enjoy weeks
or even years later. Now that we have a chance to get extremely
high-quality, HD broadcasts, the FCC is trying to take our HD media
libraries away from us.

 Why would it do this, especially given that it has received absolutely no
mandate from Congress? Basically, the agency succumbed to pressure from
Hollywood. Entertainment companies figure that as long as the copies
available online are of a lower quality than what's on TV, the broadcasters
have a leg up on downloaders. But instead of relying on the law to stop
people from infringing copyrights, these companies lobbied the FCC to take
control of the marketplace and force vendors to sell machines that make all
forms of copying effectively impossible. If your super-excellent HD copy of
CSI can't get out of the TiVo box, then you can't stick it online and break
the law. Too bad you can't do what the law permits either.

 Even more disturbing, the Broadcast Flag mandates that recording devices
be "robust against user modification." In plain language, that means
consumers can't repair, tinker with, or optimize their own machines. What's
more, it will also become impossible for small, upstart technology
companies to break into the consumer electronics market for TV recorders.
If they can't take apart the devices that output the HD signal, they can't
build cool new devices to play with that signal.

 Which also means that the devices people are using at today's Build-In
will be illegal in four months.

 The government-entertainment industrial complex

"I don't care about TV, and I don't watch it," says Build-In organizer
Seltzer, who's been fine-tuning her MythTV box for several months, coaxing
better and better performance out of it. "I'm concerned with the Broadcast
Flag because it could be the first step in a new kind of technology
regulation" - a precedent-setting moment in which one government agency
takes control of the high-tech marketplace, allowing only certain companies
to manufacture devices outputting the HD signal. It seems a dangerous
direction to be heading in.

 For now, consumers may not realize the immense impact of the Broadcast
Flag - the big content owners and the FCC are being pretty foxy about it.
Even after the Broadcast Flag goes into effect, you'll still be able to
make low-quality copies with your VCR. Most televisions are still receiving
and outputting analog signals. The full impact of the flag won't be felt
for several years, when most broadcasts are in HD and most people have
chucked their VCRs. Suddenly you'll find out that the DVD player you bought
last year can't play HD programs you burned from your new TiVo. Sound
confusing or hard to imagine? That's precisely the point - the FCC is
counting on your not being able to figure it out until it's much too late.

 Over the next decade, HD is going to become the standard signal - most new
TVs will be able to tune it, and free-to-air networks like ABC, CBS, and
Fox are going to move to HD broadcasting. So will cable. Most networks
already make some shows available in HD - CSI, most sports events, some PBS
shows, like The Desert Speaks.

If your current TV receives HD, you'll know it - the quality is so much
better it's almost scary. A traditional analog TV creates its picture out
of 480 interlaced lines on your screen, while a typical HDTV creates the
same picture using 1,080 interlaced lines. Those extra lines mean more
detail, more intense color, and an eerie sense that the picture on your
screen is literally the same quality you'd get if you were watching
something with your own eyes.

 The FCC is acting now to shut down what you can do with this amazing
quality because once consumers have something (the way they've long had
VCRs that record TV), it's harder to take it away. As long as what's being
taken away is something "in the future," it's hard to feel like you're
losing. But of course you are.

 For a perfect example of how you'll feel this loss, consider the DVD
player. Ever wonder why there have been no new nifty gadgets you can use
with your DVD player for at least 10 years? Seems strange, doesn't it? I
mean, think of how many new hoozits and zoomies have been invented for your
computer in the past decade. Given the rate of invention in this country,
shouldn't DVDs be making breakfast for you by now?

 There's one simple reason they aren't. A coalition of companies from the
entertainment, consumer electronics, and computer industries got together
in 1999 and formed a group called the DVD Copy Control Association, which
enforces a strict standard on all devices that can play DVDs. Anyone who
develops such a product must comply with the CCA's standards, which include
forcing it to place copy protections on any copies made of a DVD. Those
protections mean you can only play the DVD in "approved" devices, such as a
Sony DVD player or a Microsoft Media Player. It means you can't run the DVD
through a mixing board to make a video collage, or create a tiny digital
copy of it to play in your cell phone when you're bored on the bus.

 Just a few weeks ago, a company called Kaleidescape was sued by the CCA
for having the audacity to invent something it called a DVD jukebox - a
cool device that could hold dozens of movies ripped from DVDs and output
them to as many TVs or computers as the user liked. It was sort of like an
iPod for movies, except several people could watch the movies in the same
house at the same time if they wanted. At $27,000, the DVD jukebox is a
very high-end toy. Kaleidescape execs say it's ideal for somebody who wants
to make his or her DVD collection available to people in multiple rooms all
over a large house (like, say, Steve Jobs's).

 CCA sued Kaleidescape on the grounds that the jukebox promoted piracy,
despite the fact that the recordings in it were made from legitimately
purchased DVDs and that copies couldn't be removed for distribution
elsewhere. The industry group wanted Kaleidescape to rebuild it so that
viewers had to insert the DVD they were watching to prove they actually
owned it. Of course, that would defeat the whole purpose of a jukebox. It
would be nothing more than a very expensive DVD player.

 And that pretty much sums up why the DVD player you bought in 1995 isn't
much different from the one you'll buy tomorrow. This is a situation that
sucks for the consumer and sucks for the small-business owner or innovator
who wants to bring his or her ideas to market.

 The Broadcast Flag will create a cartel similar to the CCA, only this time
the government will be directly involved. Instead of the CCA launching a
civil suit against somebody for making a noncompliant device, under the
Broadcast Flag the government will be able to fine that person or stop him
or her from selling the product. This will allow big media companies like
MGM, Sony, and Paramount to get what they want - total control of how you
watch television - without having to get their hands dirty.

 Already, small-business owners like Jack Kelliher - who runs a tiny
computer hobbyist company called pcHDTV - are being forced to change their
business strategies to survive the flag. A longtime hardware hacker and
entrepreneur, Kelliher sells a computer component called a PC card that
lets computers tune in HD signals like a television (people at the Build-In
used his cards to turn their computers into TVs). "We wanted to do
something for hobbyists who wanted to build their own HD systems," he tells
me by phone from his office in Utah. "But then the FCC did their embargo,
and the rule means we can't offer the product next year."

 He and his partners are scrambling to come up with other (legal) products
to sell next year, in order to make ends meet. Among other things, they're
creating a computer card that will receive TV signals and output them to
analog devices that aren't affected by the Broadcast Flag. "This whole
thing bothers me because I come from an era when we built radios in high
school and stuff like that," Kelliher says. "Being able to build your own
TV seems really American to me. It's sad that the government wants to halt
innovation - it's just un-American."

 Another innovator whose brainchild will be seriously affected by the flag
is Isaac Richards, the Ohio-based lead developer of MythTV, the program the
Build-In participants are using to make their computers act like PVRs.
MythTV interacts with a PC card like Kelliher's, then displays TV shows on
your monitor. It also records and stores shows, movies, and music, and it
can even be set up to display the weather for your area (scraped from the
Weather Channel) and bring you the latest news from your favorite blogs.
It's not much different from TiVo - except that it's free and it isn't
authorized by the FCC.

 Like many inventors, Richards started his project because he wasn't
satisfied with what was commercially available. "I wanted a TiVo, but it
was limited," he says. "And the concept was simple: you just record TV and
play it back."

 Since Richards released the first version of MythTV on the Net two years
ago, the program has become quite popular: nearly 100,000 people downloaded
the last release. And part of what makes MythTV such a seductive package is
the fact that it's entirely open: anyone can add to it. It's the
diametrical opposite of a DVD player, whose every element must be reviewed
and approved by an industry cartel.

 In general, people are using MythTV to watch analog TV. But when HD
becomes the standard, MythTV's development may face stagnation. As analog
becomes an obsolete format, MythTV will also become obsolete. People can
build their own analog TVs, but they won't be able to build their own
HDTVs. And thus there's no chance an upstart young innovator like Richards
will ever create a bigger, badder, cooler PVR for HDTV the way he did with
MythTV for analog.

 Looked at from this perspective, the Broadcast Flag isn't really a
deterrent against piracy so much as a deterrent against the big consumer
electronics companies losing market share to little guys with big ideas. As
long as it's illegal for people like Richards to tinker around with HD
components, nobody will ever invent something better than TiVo or Media
Player. It simply won't be possible to create new HD-related toys without a
fleet of expensive lawyers in tow.

 The Broadcast Flag is an unholy alliance of government, big entertainment,
and big electronics. Each is protecting the others' interests so that they
can maintain control over the marketplace. The only losers in the deal are
small entrepreneurs and consumers.

 Geeks and librarians unite

Hope is not lost - at least, not yet. Several public interest groups,
including Washington, D.C.-based Public Knowledge and the EFF, as well as
the American Library Association, are fighting the Broadcast Flag tooth and
nail. Librarians worry that limiting devices that can output HD may
interfere with future methods for distance learning and archiving. Public
Knowledge is concerned with the bigger picture. As executive director Gigi
Sohn puts it, "People who want to make fair use of copyrighted materials
won't be able to do it." In other words, no personal copy of Animal
Crackers to make the flight to Australia less arduous.

 Last week, a D.C. appeals court heard oral arguments in ALA v. FCC, the
lawsuit these groups brought against the FCC, in which they argue that the
FCC overstepped its jurisdiction when it mandated the flag. "There is no
precedent for what the FCC did here," Sohn says. "Every time the FCC has
regulated devices, it's because Congress gave it the authority. But this
rule isn't based on any congressional mandate or even ancillary to a
provision in the Communications Act."

 Sohn, who was at the oral arguments, says the three-judge panel was very
persuaded by the merits of the case. All three acknowledged that the flag
seemed unnecessary to ease the nation's transition to HDTV - one even
remarked that this was as ridiculous as the FCC attempting to regulate
washing machines. Unfortunately, the case may hit a snag when it comes to
whether these groups actually have standing to bring the case. The court
seemed eager to have more concrete examples of how people would be harmed
by the mandate. "Of course, it's hard to come up with concrete examples
when the devices in question aren't even out yet," Sohn points out. And may
never be, given the flag rule's chilling effects.

 The EFF's Seltzer says the flag will create media fiefdoms, in which
consumers are locked into particular devices or sets of devices in order to
enjoy their media. It will be costly to buy a set of flag-compliant
consumer electronics that all work together - and even when you do,
recordings made in, say, a Sony machine won't be able to play in a
Microsoft one. Which is just one more reason why it's time to build your
own TV.

 Back at the Build-In, Seltzer and Brydon are jumping up and down and
shouting. "We've got TV!" Seltzer exults. Brydon can't stop grinning at her
monitor, where they've tuned in some local news. The picture is still a
little jerky - the software needs some tuning - but we've got our first
HDTV working. Best of all, it's a liberated TV - it isn't an "authorized
device," and it's not "broadcast flag compliant." It certainly isn't
"robust against user modification." But because it was built before the
July 1 start date of the Broadcast Flag rule, it's going to remain
perfectly legal. This TV will always be able to record HD shows and burn
them to DVDs for personal use. Next year, Brydon can loan her friends an
HD-quality copy of Battlestar Galactica if they missed it that week.

 Dale Kiefling, another Build-In participant, is almost ready to channel
surf on his box too. He and his friend Lorena Fleming say they're excited
to play around with TV the way they do with their computers. "I think the
Broadcast Flag punishes the wrong group," Kiefling says. "The people who do
mass piracy will always have the means to - the flag won't stop them.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are stuck with broken entertainment systems."

 All the people who now take for granted the act of removing a tape from
their VCR - the Star Trek fans, the OC addicts, the Marx brothers
aficionados - will gradually discover they can't do the same thing with
their new PVRs. Copyright law permits consumers to make personal, fair-use
copies of their media. And yet the government-entertainment industrial
complex will have engineered every device to stop them.

 "That's the worst part of all this," Fleming says. "People won't realize
how bad it is until suddenly their stuff stops working."

 Annalee Newitz is policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
a freelance writer. Get the gory details at www.techsploitation.com.


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'