

U.S. Lets Hollywood Disable Home TV Outputs to Prevent Piracy - jackfoxy
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=avYZh6qa5PmI&pos=7

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nostromo
> “This action is an important victory for consumers who will now have far
> greater access to see recent high-definition movies in their homes,” Bob
> Pisano, president and interim chief executive officer of the MPAA, said
> today in a statement.

 _groan_

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raganwald
The chocolate ration has been raised to 25 grams per week.

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hugh3
What does this actually mean on a technical level? How can anyone disable
features on my TV?

Or does it just mean that at some point in the future I'll be able to buy a TV
which is capable of streaming movies at the cost of having its video outputs
disabled for the duration? If that's the case I can hardly see myself getting
too worked up about it.

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kragen
TVs have been capable of streaming movies since they were invented. The
proposal is to retain that feature and add a defect, not to add a new feature.

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cgranade
Stories like this are why the term "anti-feature" was invented. Here, we see a
useful feature being removed from consumers for no technical reason-- what
else can you call that other than anti-feature?

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kgermino
I feel like there will be people who can't watch a movie they pay for because
of this but even if the studios manage to execute this perfectly I'm worried
about the precedent that this sets. How long will it be before they are
pushing for the same restrictions on sports programs and cable tv shows?

~~~
wmf
_How long will it be before they are pushing for the same restrictions on
sports programs and cable tv shows?_

I think the FCC specifically said that they won't allow this.

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julius_geezer
This week I finished reading George Garrett's novel _The King of Babylon Shall
Not Come Against You_. Requested by his girlfriend to tell her what Hollywood
is like, a sometime screenwriter tells this joke:

Two movie producers are lost in the desert, dehydrated and in imminent danger
of death. Suddenly they come upon a pure, bubbling spring of water. Thank God!
says the first. Wait a minute, says the second, just let me piss in it first.

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bartl
I expect a surge in piracy as a result.

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pasbesoin
I'm not particularly interested in practicing piracy, but I am interested in
retaining control including access guaranteed under current fair use statutes.

So... are the any recommendations for the best current tuner cards and devices
(e.g. housed with a USB connection) that don't have the restrictive control
built in or enabled?

I'm not too familiar with the field and so don't know, in light of current
content distribution channels, what exactly I'm asking for. But I have the
sense I should go out and buy something, before I can't.

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wmf
SOC really only applies to cable boxes, which are already full of DRM anyway.
I don't think this decision should cause anyone to buy anything different.

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joezydeco
Yeah, I'm not really understanding the anger over this just yet.

What is an "output" on a TV? You mean like an HDMI passthrough?

So we're getting mad that we can't attach a second monitor to a monitor
display a first-run Hollywood film?

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wmf
This has nothing to do with TVs; most TVs don't even have outputs. SOC
disables the analog outputs on cable boxes. If your TV is attached to one of
those disabled ports, you won't be able to use your cable box to rent movies
that aren't out on DVD yet.

~~~
joezydeco
Okay, so when I read a headline like this (consumerist.com)

 _MPAA Asks FCC For Control Of Your TV's Analog Outputs_

That means nothing. Can we get the terminology correct before we begin?

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tomjen3
Ha, by the time the movie hits theaters it is almost always leaked onto net
sites.

This won't do much, and I keep wondering why they spend so much money trying
to protect their movies rather than trying to make them cheaper to produce,
something which they do have control over.

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bediger
"Cheaper to produce" would mean that there's less leeway in the process. That
directly equates to fewer ways to game the system to get free money from the
process of making, marketing and distributing movies.

Type "byzantine accounting" into Google and see what comes up.

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JeffJenkins
Is it just me, or does this sound like an article from The Onion?

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sev
So if I downloaded a movie illegally and am watching it on my TV, they can
disable my TV? How will they remotely know it's been downloaded illegally?

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wmf
No, SOC is about preventing people from recording movies; they're trying to
stop piracy at the source. If you manage to download a pirated copy they won't
stop you.

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tlrobinson
dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1329226>

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jacquesm
Yes, but the other way around.

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hugh3
Unfortunately the other one got a bunch of comments and wound up dead, while
this one is still alive with only a thread about how the other one is dead.

~~~
jamesbritt
Would be nice to merge them. Or even leave a comment in the other thread to
come over and post here.

