The MPAA and its member studios ‘are actively hostile’ to any bro...
The MPAA and its member studios “are actively hostile” to any broadcast flag protection technology that allows remote viewing of DTV content, and therefore their arguments against TiVo’s TiVoGuard “should be taken with a grain of salt.” So argued…
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Public Knowledge (PK) and Consumers Union (CU) in a joint reply Mon. at the FCC opposing a petition for reconsideration filed by the MPAA, which urged the Commission to require the imposition of proximity controls for TiVoGuard and SmartRight technologies for broadcast flag protection. The FCC had said it wasn’t inclined to impose mandatory proximity controls on SmartRight or TiVoGuard because it was satisfied each meets the stated goal of preventing indiscriminate redistribution of content. The MPAA said the Commission had acted prematurely. TiVoGuard is a “nascent technology that is exceedingly ill-defined” and lacks specificity in how it would “effectuate” remote access, the MPAA said. But those arguments are a red herring, PK and CU replied. Had the FCC been silent on proximity controls, the MPAA “might plausibly have argued” that the Commission hadn’t fully considered whether they ought to be required of any protection scheme, they said. PK and CU said they have repeatedly criticized the broadcast flag rules, but “we believe the Commission’s intention to limit the scope of what it hoped to accomplish with this regulation was the right intention.”