FCC May Let Movie Studios Add DRM To TV, Disable Ouput To Prevent Piracy

[admin]

After incessant lobbying, Hollywood may have scored a victory in getting the FCC to approve their plans to add DRM to TV. Under the plan, studios will have the power to remotely kill your TV's output in order to prevent copying. Studios say this promotes innovation, as it will allow them to release movies onto TV much faster than before, without having to worry about the movies being pirated.

The FCC previously rejected the plan, but it appears they may have reconsidered.

More:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-07/u-s-said-to-let-movie-studios-use-anti-piracy-technology-on-tv.html

[doctorhardware]

I wonder how much money was put into the back pockets of the FCC. I always figured that they would cave in to hollywood.

[drfsupercenter]

This is why analog cable is awesome, I'd *LOVE* to see them try to stop me from recording shows on my DVD recorder or capture card, as it just won't happen.

[admin]

Now that studios have gotten the FCC to approve DRM for TV, which they said previously was the only way to get movies to be shown on TV earlier (despite many studios already doing this without the need for DRM), now the studios say they probably won't release movies early on TV as it may hurt the cinema business:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/business/media/18movies.html?src=twt&twt=nytimestech

So basically all that's happened is that DRM got added to TV and there probably won't be any new content as a trade off.

If the studios get their way, nobody would ever be able to record stuff from TV, even for time-shifting purposes.

[drfsupercenter]

Unless you have a recorder like mine that doesn't care about copy protection

[dr_ml422]

I don't get this fully. I read it here and on your Blog. What really is so pressing to the Studios about not allowing one to record a TV show/movie etc...? I mean are they releasing movies to TV before DVD/Bluray now? I have no clue as I don't have any premium channels. How is recording a show/movie that already came out on DVD/Blu-ray hurting them?

This is nuts. I don't think they would be making more $$$ releasing movies to the TV before DVD/Blu-ray anyway. What HBO or any other premium channel will pay more than millions of copies of DVDs/Blu-rays?

Can you elaborate on this. Thnx.

[admin]

It's about releasing movies earlier than on disc, and possibly while some are still showing at the cinemas. That's the excuse the MPAA was going with when lobbying the FCC, but it looks like now that they've got DRM for TV, they're not that keen to push on with this plan at all.

In the MPAA's ideal world, everything will have DRM, so with the FCC caving in on their demands, expect to see DRM on things that are already on Blu-ray/DVD as well. If you can't record movies from TV, you'll have to buy them if you want to watch it more than just the one time, and that's what the MPAA was counting on.

[dr_ml422]

Ok so if that's the case I guess it'll PO home viewers that are cutting back on costs because of the economy, and will not be able to record these movies for later viewing, unless the DVR pay per view works differently than straight up recording to a standalone.

As it's already evident this will not deter Piracy, but most likely encourage it even more. I don't blame anyone at this point!