Freedom loving DTV

The EFF are also trying to encourage people to invest in "an open, freedom-loving digital television tuner between now and the summer"

Donna Wentworth writes in the latest edition of the EFF's Effector:

"There's only half a year left before the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) takes away your right
to watch digital television on a device that isn't
Hollywood-approved. Under the new "Broadcast Flag"
regime, the FCC will mandate that every digital
television device include the kind of technology that
we see in cable personal video recorders (PVRs) and
media center PCs - technology that allows entertainment
companies to do things like arbitrarily erase your
stored episodes of "Six Feet Under" after two weeks
so that you'll be forced to pay-per-view your
end-of-season marathon, or stop you from burning "The
Sopranos" to DVD to force you to buy the DVD boxed
sets.

The tiny silver lining here is that if you can get an open,
freedom-loving digital television tuner between now and
the summer, you'll be able to go on doing practically
anything you like with the digital television you
receive over the air and with your unencrypted cable
signal. If you choose to do this by plugging a DTV
tuner into your computer, you'll be able to archive your
shows on your hard-drive, manipulate them with your
favorite editing software, and email clips to your
friends.

In fact, as a demonstration of the point, EFF has just
posted five high-definition minutes of "The Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" that we recorded
off the air in November. You can download the clip to
check whether your computer is up to the high-def DTV
challenge. This is exactly the kind of fair use that
will become impossible for those who buy digital
television tuner cards after July 2005, when the
Broadcast Flag regulations take effect.

So how'd we record it? With a Macintosh, as it happens.

Mac users have fewer options for DTV than their Linux-
and Windows-using compatriots, but they aren't
suffering: the best Mac operating system solution for
watching and storing digital TV signals (including
super-sharp high-def signals) is El Gato's EyeTV.

EFF's own Fred Von Lohmann is a Mac enthusiast of the
first order, and he's been road-testing the EyeTV 500.
He's written an exhaustive, detailed review with
special emphasis on the endangered freedoms EyeTV
embodies:

<http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/eyetv500.php>

EFF is part of a lawsuit against the FCC challenging the Broadcast Flag. We're going to court soon to fight for
your right to purchase devices like the EyeTV 500 after
August - but if you want to safeguard your ability to
make legal, fair uses of digital broadcasts, you may
want to pick one up now."

The broadcast flag like most other drm technologies will eventually die out in the face of consumer angst with not being able to engage useful features and the idiotic restrictions that will come about such as recorded shows being wiped from the recorder after two weeks. In the meantime the industry is jockeying for position and trying to lever their power in existing markets into the media landscape of the future. We shouldn't be surprised at this. It's the way business works. [Not that I necessarily endorse this state of affairs, of course when it leads to this kind of nonsense]