Fear and Loathing in Hollywood – Again
By James Snider, 1394 Trade Association. -- EDN, February 3, 2003
About once every generation or so the movie moguls who rule in Hollywood anoint the newest, most exciting technology as a new enemy that unless stamped out will bankrupt their industry. Their latest fight is with the public that needs and wants to retain its digital rights. Hollywood, known for battling new technologies as they emerge, instead fear rampant and unauthorized copying by the public -- for commercial, not personal, uses.
Executives and their attorneys at Disney, for example, are painting a grim picture of Mickey Mouse in rags unless the potential for technological advance is not controlled immediately. Add to this battle the new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling mandating digital TV and the consumer, as usual, is set up for a real disappointment.
First, copy ‘protection’ and its place in the Hollywood walk of fear. The entertainment industry is highly unimaginative when it comes to seeing how a new technology can be used to their advantage. And they resist at first. The studios moaned about TV in the 1950s, then took up arms against the VCR in the 1970s, and fought unsuccessfully to get a $25 tax applied to every videotape. Today, half their income is from tape sales and rentals, of course. They obviously learned to adapt.
Then, in the 1990s, the introduction of the DVD was delayed by more than a year due to Hollywood’s obstructionist tactics. Today, they are worried about the FCC-mandated transition from analog to digital TV by 2006, with the accompanying fear of widespread, unauthorized and revenue-wrecking digital content copying. According to their apocalyptic vision of 2006, any broadcast can be lifted onto the Internet and shared freely, right away. Their basic complaint is “How can we compete with free?” To which Gary Shapiro, President of the Consumer Electronics Association replied, “The bottled water industry competes very well with free.” Along the same vein, Andy Grove asked “Were the manufacturers of printing presses forced to protect the monks? Was the PC industry forced to protect the mainframe computer industry? Why is this case any different?”
Copying is really a symbol of studio or corporate control being lost, with resulting impact on profits. New, tough anti-copying laws can provide Hollywood with a long-term tool to control how content reaches the public, enabling creation of an electronic ‘toll road’ along which nothing travels unless or until the end user coughs up $3.95 or more per viewing/listening experience. As one consumer electronics magazine editor put it last summer, if Hollywood gets its way on the electronics control issue, they’ll turn the newest of digital TVs into electronic jukeboxes. Put your money in, each time, before you can hear or watch anything you want.
Different studios have different attitudes about all of this. Some aren’t taking part in pressuring Congress to mandate exactly what goes into the new generation of electronics. They seem more willing to adapt to technology’s advances, and find new and creative ways to participate. But others have decided to go beyond complaining about CD ‘ripping’ or DVD copying.
Hollywood and Digital Copying
But others in Hollywood are complaining, and they’ve found a friend in South Carolina Senator Ernest Hollings, with his bill to order the FCC to prohibit ‘thievery’ -- if the entertainment and technology sectors cannot come up with their own solution. They, and we, have provided a fine answer in the digital copy protection scheme, known as ‘5C’ for the five industry leaders who established and completed the program. But it’s not good enough for Hollywood because it does not completely prohibit copying outright, instead allowing users an option of ‘copy once,’ for personal use.
So how does the consumer make a recording of a favorite TV program to watch later? There are a couple of ways. One option: put a digital-to-analog converter in the TV so the consumer can use an analog VCR to record programs. Not digital quality, but no digital recording either. The other option is to include a hard drive in the set-top box, which can record 40, 60, maybe 80 hours of programming in full digital quality. When the hard drive is full, the user starts recording over previously recorded programming. That makes it almost impossible -- at least for casual users -- to transfer the video out of the set-top box for a permanent copy. But Hollywood should realize it can never stop everyone -- only the honest guy.
This techno-political soup is thick as it is, but now add in another factor: the U.S. budget deficit and the ability of the FCC to put back a few dollars by auctioning off the analog spectrum freed up by the all-digital TV requirement in 2006.
Congress, to its credit, seems not exactly eager to be seen trampling on consumer rights. But they and the FCC do want all TV broadcasting to move over to the digital spectrum so the Feds can take back the analog spectrum and start the bidding. This will complicate the ongoing debate over digital capability and protecting copy, with the basic effect of chilling electronic innovation, and very possibly slowing new TV and other consumer electronics sales, until the copying issue is clarified. Some new HDTVs and digital VCRs could rust on store shelves while this little mini-series plays out.
Hollywood studio execs and their legal eagles should stop regarding the consumer as Public Enemy Number One, and end their quest to reverse court decisions that upheld the right to make copies for non-commercial use. I am not too thrilled about spending $5000 for a new HDTV that will not let me make a digital recording that I can keep. Hollywood should stop battling new technology and adapt to it, without trampling the public’s established rights to copy for personal use.
James Snider is executive director of the 1394 Trade Association.
