Although it specifically was absolved by the FCC’s recent order o...
Although it specifically was absolved by the FCC’s recent order on broadcast flag protection from any requirement to do so, Thomson will stand by its late-May pledge to the major movie studios and impose proximity controls on its SmartRight…
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technology as a further buffer against the unauthorized redistribution of content, the company told the MPAA in a letter Fri. The letter said, “we believe that proximity content control will be essential until broader agreements can be reached on remote content access.” In return, Thomson subtly told the major studios it expected them to live up to their own pledge in May to work with the company “to develop criteria for remote content access.” Thomson said it hoped such criteria could be developed by the end of the year. Dave Arland, Thomson vp-communications & govt. relations, told us the commitment to MPAA on “turning on” proximity controls was made with the “understanding” the studios would help develop the criteria permitting activation of SmartRight’s most “compelling” feature -- the ability to access material stored in a home network from a remote location, such as vacation home or while on a business trip. Thomson’s decision to heed the MPAA’s request and impose “RTT” and “TTL” proximity controls was conditioned on its option to later relax those controls, should content owners agree or the FCC’s rules permit.