HRRC Urges Public Review And FCC Action, With ""Secret"" PHILA License Made Public

March 22 Version Of Mandatory License Still Would Impose Copy Control, Selectable Output Control, Down-Resolution Of HDTV Signals, And PVR Content ""Obliteration""

10-Apr-02

The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) called for an immediate airing of the public policy issues raised by the cable industry ""POD-Host Interface License Agreement"" (PHILA), now that a version dated March 22 has appeared on a public cable industry Web site. Previous secret drafts of this license had been subject to a strict non-disclosure agreement.The 1996 Telecommunications Act instructed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to require retail availability of cable set-top boxes, televisions, and other products that attach directly to digital cable systems. This provision would end the cable industry's monopoly on in-home cable equipment, allowing competition for what Fortune recently called ""the most valuable square foot in America.""""Competition in this arena will speed the transition to digital television (DTV) and give America's cable consumers the benefits of the increased innovation, wider choices, and lower prices characteristic of a retail marketplace,"" said Michael Petricone of the HRRC.CableLabs, the cable industry research consortium owned by the major cable operators, offered in 1997 to draft technical specifications to comply with this legislation. FCC rules require any manufacturer who wants to develop competitive devices to sign a license demanded by CableLabs. After years of negotiation, no competitive manufacturer has been able to sign the license, and the issue persists as a major obstacle to the DTV transition.""CableLabs, under the FCC's delegation of its authority, is insisting on anti-consumer constraints on any product that would be sold in competition with those of its cable industry owners,"" Petricone stated. ""After a year of secret negotiations, all of the anti-consumer provisions remain: copy control, 'selectable output control,' and 'down-resolution' of HDTV signals, plus new provisions for 'obliteration' of certain personal video recorder (PVR) content. CableLabs cannot claim antitrust immunity for exercising a legally delegated power, yet disclaim any responsibility for public discourse. The sorry state of the PHILA license shows that the FCC now needs to reclaim the mission that the Congress gave it. And given the important implications for consumers, the Commission should release the license for notice and comment as soon as possible.""On behalf of the HRRC, Petricone noted that when telephone customer premises equipment was deregulated more than two decades ago, the FCC insisted that the license for competitive attachment, and all comments on that license, be reviewed on the public record. As to cable devices, the Commission has an open docket, CS Docket 97-80, and a pending proceeding, the ""Year 2000 Review."" The FCC announced this review in September 2000, to explore why there had been no competitive entry despite FCC regulations requiring support for competitive devices by July 1, 2000. Petricone said that PHILA, and other pending ""Year 2000"" public policy issues, must be resolved now to help meet Congress' goal of empowering consumers to enjoy fully the benefits of DTV and related products. Petricone emphasized that it is vital to get onto the public record the positions of all interested parties, not just cable operators.""The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and CableLabs insist that selectable output control and HDTV down-resolution are required in the PHILA license because the motion picture industry demands them for copy control purposes,"" Petricone noted. ""But in the past month, three movie studio CEOs have told the Congress they no longer favor selectable output control or want to prevent consumer home recording, so long as home copies are not redistributed over the Internet. These new positions, which have not been communicated to the FCC, need to be put on the record and the PHILA license should be changed accordingly.""Petricone also called on the FCC to request public comment on public policy aspects of the several OpenCable specifications required by the PHILA license. To ensure consumers' right to connect competitively produced navigation devices to cable systems, the FCC should request public comment on whether the OCAP or other OpenCable specification or agreements violate section 76.1204(c) of the Commission's Navigation Device rule.""All who care about protecting consumers' established home recording and fair use rights should read the PHILA draft,"" urged Petricone, and can be found at www.opencable.com/documents.html.""The down-resolution, copy control, and obliteration provisions appear in the Compliance Rules, Exhibit C. We also urge all those who share HRRC's concerns to contact their members of Congress and the FCC.""Further information about this and related issues are available at www.hrrc.org.

Read More:
http://www.hrrc.org