AGREEMENT REACHED ON PLUG-&-PLAY TEST PROCEDURES

However, NCTA’s was the lone reconsideration petition with which the CEA had no objection in the latest round of comments filed in the Commission’s plug-&-play proceeding. In fact, the CEA urged the FCC to reject all the “petitioned- for changes” except for “the clarifications jointly recommended” with the cable industry on test procedures. CEA took particular aim at the content community, saying several parties sought to turn the plug-&-play encoding rules “on their head, to read as implied mandates on consumer product rather than as explicit protections of them.”

As for the agreement on test procedures, the CEA said the original plug-&-play memorandum had provided verification tests would be governed by a so-called “test suite,” jointly developed by CableLabs and CEA. But CEA said some CE manufacturers had expressed an interest in testing products using a different plan from that administered by CableLabs. “In some cases, it is contemplated that the test plan will utilize equipment or procedures that may be proprietary,” the CEA said. Cable interests believed the CableLabs-CEA rules previously agreed on should be “used in all locations,” and that those rules “should evolve through consultation and mutual agreement,” the CEA said. To resolve this dispute, it was agreed that plug-&-play compliance can also be tested through an “equivalent acceptance test plan” (ATP) other than CableLabs, so long as a variety of conditions are met. They include the provision that if there’s any dispute in results of tests performed under the equivalent ATP, it will be the original ATP that “shall govern.”

Besides embracing the agreement with the CE industry on test procedures, NCTA, like the CEA, also used its comments to oppose other petitioners. DirecTV’s objections that the encoding rules excluded the Internet and other competing technologies is “without merit,” the NCTA said. Apply the encoding rules only to multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs) “was a practical recognition of the Commission’s limited jurisdiction over the Internet and other competing distribution technologies,” the NCTA said. “The cable and CE industries have committed to pursuing the application of such rules to all competing technologies for the distribution of video. In the meantime, MSOs and DBS are in the same position with respect to the application of the encoding rules to their core businesses.”

DirecTV’s arguments also were opposed in a joint filing by Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. In addition to raising “significant jurisdictional questions” at the FCC, the IT companies said, DirecTV’s proposal “could undermine much of the promise afforded by the Internet and other digital content distribution technologies.” They said they also had some concerns about how “qualified” testing facilities were to be defined. The companies proposed “modified and additional standards designed to ensure more fully the competency, transparency and neutrality of authorized testing programs.”

Other commenters stood by their party lines in opposing or agreeing with other petitioners. The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), with which the CEA is affiliated, alleged the MPAA was guilty of a “flip-flop” when it recently asked the FCC to revise plug-&-play to require the implementation of selectable output controls. The HRRC said that proposal came after years of MPAA assurances to Congress that it would seek no such controls. “The MPAA has a right to change its mind” on selectable output controls, HRRC argued. However, its petition “cites no sound or specific reason for doing so, other than a general future need for the ‘retirement’ of interfaces,” HRRC said.

The MPAA argued that the FCC should reject the petition by BMI and ASCAP for an exemption from the encoding rules. The performing rights societies had asked that they “not be prevented by the rules from decrypting any digital rights management method adopted and approved by the FCC.” But the MPAA told the Commission the proposed exemption is “unnecessary and opens a serious loophole that would undermine technological efforts at content protection by conditional access systems.” Plug-&-play rules “would not in any way undermine” any activities normally carried out by BMI and ASCAP to monitor conditional access and broadcast content, the MPAA said.

Meanwhile, the NAB confined its comments to concerns it had from the NCTA petition on carriage of PSIP data. The NAB said it supported NCTA’s objective “of increased clarity” in the rules and saw value in its arguments on 2 of the 3 points raised about PSIP data. However, the NAB maintained that the existing FCC rule is “exactly right” on limitation of services that fall under PSIP data structures carried by cable and shouldn’t be changed.