[opendtv] Re: Microsoft's Masters: Whose Rules Does Your Media Center Play By?
- From: John Willkie <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 09:56:39 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
this posting is specious and foolish. NBC -- and CBS o&o's by the way --
asserts the broadcast flag. The former appears to not know that they are doing
do. That's their bad.
Microsoft's Media Center/Vista simply follow the language of the ATSC A/65 spec
in the presence of the broadcast flag, which means -- simply that
"“technological control of consumer redistribution is signaled."
The court's decision was that the FCC could not make this language a mandate
against receiver manufacturers. (Sorry, but I ACTUALLY read and UNDERSTAND
[for the most part] court decisions.)
The decision didn't say that manufacturers couldn't respect the flag (it said
the opposite), just that the FCC didn't have the jurisdiction to force them do
so so.
MS is an ATSC member. They are simply following the instructons that NBC puts
in their transport stream.
We had a "somewhat higher level" discussion of this on my PSIP list earlier in
the week, and used the CNET posting.
There is a pending question as to whether ignoring the flag is a violation of
the Copyright Act. That is too complicated for a CNET article, of course.
John Willkie
EtherGuide Systems
-----Original Message-----
>From: Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: May 23, 2008 4:47 AM
>To: undisclosed-recipient@null, null@null
>Subject: [opendtv] Microsoft's Masters: Whose Rules Does Your Media Center
>Play By?
>
>
>May 19th, 2008
>Microsoft's Masters: Whose Rules Does Your Media Center Play By?
>Posted by Danny O'Brien
>
>While its customers are still puzzling over why Vista Media Center is
>suddenly refusing to record over-the-air NBC digital TV, Microsoft
>has come out with an astounding admission, courtesy of Greg Sandoval
>at CNet News:
>
> "Microsoft included technologies in Windows based on rules set
>forth by the (Federal Communications Commission)," a Microsoft
>spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "As part of these
>regulations, Windows Media Center fully adheres to the flags used by
>broadcasters and content owners to determine how their content is
>distributed and consumed."
>
>Microsoft's statement shines light on how Microsoft expects Media
>Center to behave. If this is the company's explanation for what users
>are seeing when attempting to record digital NBC broadcasts
>over-the-air, then Microsoft is saying Vista obeys the broadcast
>flag: a requirement rejected by courts and Congress.
>
>...
>
>http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/microsofts-masters-whose-rules-does-your-media-cen
>
>
>
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