] Thursday's agreement was signed by the 14 companies that
] make most HDTV sets and the seven major cable operators
] that serve 75 percent of cable homes (Cable One,
] Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox
] Communications, Insight Communications and AOL Time
] Warner Cable). HDTV has been talked about for longer then the Internet by most people. Its crawling. Could it be because of the . . . Content owners?? ] Negotiations, however, didn't include content owners, who
] worry that individuals could make a perfect digital copy,
] transfer it to a computer hard drive, and then post it on
] a peer-to-peer file sharing service. I don't think they want the screws on them. The cable companies and the hardware manfacturers have very different concerns then the content owners. Its in both their intrests to have HDTVs selling, and channels for its use open. The content folks are worried about their control over their product. Its likely they didn't want the content owners involved because they wouldn't have gotten anything done otherwise. Its clear that if they have an attack plan for the nuts-and-bolts of digital cable interoperation, the next step is going to be sell the technologys existance to the content owners. Its going to be a fight for them. The content people really wish things would "slow down" for awhile, they need to catch their breath, things are tough for them right now.. :) They will use all their influence to cause that "slow down" to happen.. Picture wanting to discuss something like level two network addressing with a bunch of engineer types.. Would you want the MPAA sitting in the room? Would that be helpful? Or would you just have someone screaming "Lossless transmission! Ack! No no no! No Error correction! We need errors so people will go out and buy the pristine DVD!! It has to suck or supply will meet demand and the value of our IP will be fucked because that value is based on scarcity!! Oh, woe is me, everything has changed." in your ear. ] Nonetheless, the proposal included one aspect likely to
] meet resistance from Hollywood: It would ban content
] owners from purposely degrading HDTV signals out of fear
] that a consumer might make a perfect digital copy. I like that. Yea, this was most likely setup to draw the line for the MPAA or something like that. Maybe then want to get the two sides of the conflict facing each other head on and the issues laied out. Going to have to check a few more articles about this, but that's the vibe I'm getting. They want HDTV ready to roll, they got about two years before the manfacturing costs of those nice flat panels will be trivial. They want to be ready to push volume and have compelling service available by then. ] But while the Home Recording Rights Coalition, an
] alliance of industry and consumer groups, lauded the
] agreement's copy-protection stance, Hollywood interests
] were more cautious on Thursday. The message most likely was: "If it dosen't allow me to exercise my Fair Use rights, I don't want it. What you are doing looks Ok, don't let THEM fuck it up.." ] The Motion Picture Association of America said on
] Thursday that it needed more time to review the details
] of the agreement, but officials hinted that the proposed
] encoding rules may not suffice. No shit. The MPAA will not be happy with anything that amounts to technological progress unless its removes freedom of information manipulation, or is strictly limited to the realm of cinema multiplexes and other areas where they have complete and total control of the distribution chain. Fuck em' Wired News: HDTV Pact: Finally a Done Deal | 
