HRRC Urges FCC Not to Slam the Door on HDTV Early Adopters

[Gregg Lengling]

The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) today submitted response filings in two Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) proceedings related to the digital television (DTV) transition, which call for a permanent ban on downresolution and the preservation of consumers' customary home recording and fair use rights in the digital age.
Drawing a line of distinction between the related digital television (DTV) proceedings, the HRRC explained in its plug-and-play filing that while the broadcast flag proceeding arises from an initiative to afford to broadcasters the same ability to address Internet redistribution as is enjoyed by program distributors whose programming is subject to conditional access and copy protection. By contrast, the plug-and-play proceeding arose from a specific initiative by Congress to inject manufacturing and retail competition into the only consumer device market still monopolized by the service providers. "Thus," the HRRC wrote, "while promotion of competition should inform everything the Commission does, it is at the core of the plug-and-play proceeding."

Noting that there are no devices available to consumers to provide "non-downres'd" signals to the almost six million owners of high-definition television (HDTV) and enhanced definition (EDTV) displays that would be damaged by it, HRRC argued that the ability of these consumers to enjoy HDTV now lies squarely in the hands of the FCC, because approval of a "downres trigger" on non-broadcast programming would disenfranchise all of these consumers.

HRRC explained that most HDTV products today now have secure digital interfaces, such as DVI, HDMI and 1394, and that actions taken by the Commission, including the DTV tuner mandate and digital cable ready (DCR) provisions, ensure future products will be outfitted with digital interfaces. Additionally, HRRC argued "there is no rationale for downresolution springing from denial of ability to record - all 'downres' does is cut the bandwidth of the signal that is recorded. Similarly, HDTV downresolution keeps nothing from the Internet, since by cutting the signal down to one-quarter its transmitted size, 'downres' effectively compresses the signal for redistribution."

Pointing to the recent submission to the FCC of the Copy Protection Technical Working Group's (CPTWG) Analog Reconversion Discussion Group (ARDG) final report, HRRC noted true content protection solutions exist that have been designed through inter-industry collaboration. "This work undermines a core precept of downresolution - that there is no copy protection alternative to punishing innocent consumers for their early investment in HDTV."

HRRC also said the Commission should be mindful of the public's trust in any consideration of the retirement or revocation of connectors, interfaces or devices, arguing that "when an interface or an enabling technology is 'retired,' 'revoked,' or turned off via 'selectable output control,' the covenant, which extends all the way through to the consumer, is broken. The Commission would become a party to the breaking of this trust agreement."

HRRC urged the Commission to approach with serious caution any consideration to revoke technologies, products or interfaces on which consumers currently rely, or risk "the responsibility for denying to consumers the benefits of products they purchased in good faith." HRRC continued by stressing the importance of balancing the rights and expectations of consumers with the core needs of content providers, noting that consumers will invest in new "secure" technology but only if it operates predictably and meets their reasonable expectations.

Consumers' reliance on established legal uses for technology "should not be outweighed by findings that a technology has been 'compromised'," HRRC continued, especially since consumer copy protection and redistribution technologies are designed primarily to attach legal liability to those who choose to infringe upon or circumvent the law. "They are not designed to be impregnable. They should not be revoked or retired for failing to maintain a standard they were never designed to meet," said HRRC.

The HRRC filing also advocated that any definition assigned to a personal digital network environment (PDNE) "be formulated in accordance with fair use principles." HRRC pointed out that inherent in the definition of redistribution - distribution of the content in direct and actual competition with the original commercial distribution and not as a fair use - is "the recognition that private, noncommercial fair uses are not included in the targeted area" for the broadcast flag. With copy protection excluded, there would be little incentive for anyone to circumvent these technical measures in order to exercise fair use.

"However," HRRC continued, "if the PDNE is defined too narrowly, the resulting consumer frustration, and incentive to support circumvention products, will rise. In a digitally networked environment, consumers will expect to have an ability to move content from home to car to office, or to share on a private, noncommercial basis with close relatives and personal acquaintances. The Commission should recognize this in drawing any line between home recording and redistribution."

About HRRC:
The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), founded in 1981, is a leading advocacy group for consumers' rights to use home electronics products for private, non-commercial purposes. The members of HRRC include consumers, retailers, manufacturers and professional servicers of consumer electronics products. Further information on this and related issues can be found on the HRRC website, //www.HRRC.org