Consensus at Lawyerpoint: Text of Hollings letter to Powell

July 22, 2002

[News]
Text of Hollings letter to Powell

We have obtained a copy of the letter sent by Sen. Hollings to Chairman Powell.

Hollings urges Powell to move quickly and to implement a broadcast flag mandate now, even without additional legislation. He suggests that 47 USC 336(b)(4) and (b)(5) already give Powell the authority to impose such regulations.

Hollings says that it is "beyond dispute that the public interest would be served" by this mandate. We're confident that Chairman Powell is already aware that there's plenty of dispute.

What accounts for the timing of this letter? It's likely the result of Rep. Tauzin's round-table meeting last Monday, where, sources relate, Tauzin indicated that broadcast flag legislation would not be passed this year. Clearly broadcast flag proponents have reacted to this news by trying to make an end-run around legislation.

Posted by Seth Schoen at 11:40 AM

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What is the BPDG?

In the year 2006 all over-the-air television will be digital. This is pretty hot stuff: crystal-clear pictures, ear-popping audio and interactive features for days. But as the technologists give, the studios take away.

The Broadcast Protection Discussion Group is an obscure group of Hollywood studios and technology companies that are negotiating a "consensus" for any gadget or code that can touch the studios' product. Once they're done, they want to go to Washington and ask Congress and/or the FCC to give their "standard" the force of law.

So what? Well, this is a radical departure from the way it's usually done. Usually, bright nerds invent something cool and the entertainment industry has a nervous breakdown and runs around telling everyone that the sky is falling (Marconi got sued over the radio, Sony got sued over the VCR, and it took a near miracle to get movies out of the studios' vaults and onto television). People pick up on the tech and all the interesting ways that it can be used as a creative tool, and gradually the entertainment industry realizes that a new day has dawned and gets its act together, starts shipping product for the new media, and takes home yet another squillion dollars.

This time around, the entertainment industry wants to take away all that sloppy, inefficient fooling around where technology companies try out lots of different approaches, where garage inventors go from obscurity to posterity under a hail of customers, where you and I get to invent amazing new uses for our stuff that a bunch of engineers in a board-room never would've thought of in a million years. This time around, everything not forbidden is mandatory. MORE...