[opendtv] Re: Microsoft's Masters: Whose Rules Does Your Media Center Play By?

At 2:35 AM -0400 5/25/08, Albert Manfredi wrote:

Richard C. Ramsden wrote:


 Microsoft is in an odd position. Technically respecting the
 "broadcast flag" is illegal.


It's not illegal, and what's more, "respecting" it is an undefined concept.
The courts decided that the FCC was overstepping its bounds in its 2003 ruling about how this flag was to be implemented in receivers, but that doesn't mean that manufacturers can't interpret the field to mean anything their fevered minds can come up with.
I agree with Tom. Microsoft is pandering to the media moguls, assigning a meaning to that flag that neither the ATSC nor the FCC had *EVER* envisioned.
They assigned the exact meaning to the redistribution control flag as defined by the ATSC. In this case NBC set the flag to "copy never."
The ATSC calls it a "redistribution control" flag, then gets all wishy washy about what that means. The FCC had tried to be more precise, but the courts didn't like that.
Microsoft took it upon itself to pretend the flag means "copy never." Completely out of the blue. 

Not out of the blue. They just honored NBCs intent.
I find it unethical for manufactuers to sell products that are NOT in the best interest of their customers (within legal limits, of course). I don't know how anyone can stand by and watch this sort of collusion between industries going on and not become irate. 

Feel free to feel rate.
When enough people get fed up with being treated this way the media moguls will have no choice but to give the customer what they want WITHOUT the crap. But more likely they will keep giving us crap... 

Regards
Craig


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