Microsoft confirms Windows adheres to broadcast flag
Microsoft has acknowledged that Windows Media Centers will block users from recording TV shows at the request of a broadcaster.
"Microsoft included technologies in Windows based on rules set forth by the (Federal Communications Commission)," a Microsoft spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "As part of these regulations, Windows Media Center fully adheres to the flags used by broadcasters and content owners to determine how their content is distributed and consumed."
The software company was responding to questions about why some users of Windows Vista Media Center were prevented from recording NBC Universal TV shows, American Gladiator and Medium on Monday night.
The "rules," in which the spokeswoman is apparently referring to are those proposed by the FCC, which would require software and hardware makers honor "broadcast flags." The flags are code that broadcasters can insert into the data stream of TV shows that typically require restrictions on the recording of the shows. What she didn't say is that the "rules" aren't rules at all.
The courts struck down the FCC's proposal in 2005, saying the regulator lacked the authority to tell electronics makers how to interpret the signals they receive. Since then, Microsoft and other manufacturers have retained the option of whether to honor the flags.
News that the world's largest software maker has voluntarily agreed to help broadcasters control the recording of their shows is bound to outrage enthusiasts of digital video recorders, as it represents the biggest threat to the practice known as time shifting since the FCC's attempt to require flag adherence.
"Microsoft has put the requirements of broadcasters above what consumers want," said Danny O'Brien, a staffer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for Internet users that is looking into Monday's block. "They've imposed restrictions way beyond what the law requires. Customers need to know who Microsoft is listening to and how that affects their equipment. Right now, the only way customers know what Microsoft has agreed to is when the technology they've bought suddenly stops working. Microsoft needs to come clean and tell its customers what deals it has made."
The question of whether NBC Universal issued a flag for American Gladiator has yet to be answered. The network said last week that it needed time to look into the matter. Microsoft's spokeswoman did not offer any information on whether NBC Universal activated a flag. The software company did, however, inform us that accidents do happen.
"In some cases content may be incorrectly flagged in the actual broadcast, which may affect the consumer's TV experience," Microsoft's spokeswoman wrote. "The success of the entire distribution chain is dependent on all involved maintaining the necessary checks and quality control so that coding is correctly applied thereby avoiding any unexpected outcome."
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET.
Microsoft should IMMEDIATELY supply a patch that turns off this functionality in Windows Media Center (yes, it is a planned functionality), and I expect they will.
How about the Windows Monopoly Tax that lets them soak up billions of unearned dollars from their hostage customers and pay off billions in fines and lawsuits with just a shrug.
Thankfully I don't use that, however if MS uses a similar setup to what others are there is a very easy way around this, line in option. Thats under the presumption the person has an external tuner and the MS device can take line in. I've used line in to port in other sources, even antenna and it works like a charm. I'll have to test mine this week and see if they are effected by NBC as well or if it is only MS.
Linux's incompatibility and UI would drive the average consumer nuts.
Windows is the only product that is intentionally made to not do what you bought it for.
One wonders, since recording and time shifting has been legal for decades, would it be a violation of the DMCA to defeat the "flagging" "feature" in WMC? You know it will happen, or has happened, that someone will defeat this latest form of copy protection. On the other hand, maybe Microsoft just enjoys pissing off their customers by preventing them from doing something that is entirely legal.
Oh, and to the comment on "Apple Design Tax," I sit here surrounded by PC's running everything from Win 98SE to Vista Home Premium; Silicon Graphics machines running IRIX, Sun workstations running Solaris and a few Macs. If Apple's ability to make their software and hardware work together at a reasonable price constitutes a "design tax," then SGI and Sun have "taxes" for the same thing. If they wanted to sell something that might work, (and which is being continually made less compatible), they could do what Microsoft and the PC market have done.
For a simpler example an mp3 may contain a high pitch frequency that a human couldn't hear, but the computer can still pick them up. That way even an analog duplication may still contain the water mark.
Either method they're using are already known by hackers. Both type of flags are easily removed from content.
Basically the signal is still the same. You don't have to hack it or decrypt it any different from what I've heard. All that happens is when the computer or recorder picks up the flag it simply refuses to play or record it. The device is perfectly capable of using the signal. The programmer just put code in that causes the device to tell you to screw yourself if it reads a flag. That's all. You can hack it by simply building a device or program that simply ignores the flag.
There may be different classes of flags too. Media Center may detect a flag that says it's alright to watch the signal but not record it, or you can't watch or record it, or you can only watch it on Thursdays if you do record it. Who knows what types of flags it listens for.
The best of all worlds
For a simpler example an mp3 may contain a high pitch frequency that a human couldn't hear, but the computer can still pick them up. That way even an analog duplication may still contain the water mark.
Either method they're using are already known by hackers. Both type of flags are easily removed from content.
Basically the signal is still the same. You don't have to hack it or decrypt it any different from what I've heard. All that happens is when the computer or recorder picks up the flag it simply refuses to play or record it. The device is perfectly capable of using the signal. The programmer just put code in that causes the device to tell you to screw yourself if it reads a flag. That's all. You can hack it by simply building a device or program that simply ignores the flag.
There may be different classes of flags too. Media Center may detect a flag that says it's alright to watch the signal but not record it, or you can't watch or record it, or you can only watch it on Thursdays if you do record it. Who knows what types of flags it listens for.
But it said affects some users? What does that mean? Is it communicating with the hardware to read the flag? That would make it hardware dependent like you say, but this article doesn't say. Was the broadcast just wrongly flagged in certain areas or what?
The big story is MS is willing to screw its customers for
Hollywood, but why? What did they do to convince MS to do this? The law doesn't require MS to do this. Was there a big payoff somewhere? That's' what I want to know, and the media isn't asking the questions.
Adhering to an unconstitutional "rule" which is not law and adversely affecting consumers is a bad move. As if Vista doesn't have enough problems.
Now whether or not they have the right currently to make it stick is simply a matter of a judge's decision and that can come pro or con regarding this situation. Given the pressure that the FCC has been bringing to bear on all the OEM's of late, it makes sense to prepare for the inevitibl and not stick our fingers in our ears shouting 'lalalaalaalalalala' like so many of the people here are wont to do.
Remember, this isn't Microsoft pushing for this, this is your United States Government. Don't like it? Don't tell Apple, Microsoft, Redhat, Tivo, DSN, etc. Tell your Representative or Congressman. Get involved, don't sit on the sidelines and let this happen to you without your input.
This is unfortunate, because if Microsoft does not fix this very quickly and very publicly it is the end of Windows Media Center. What person would go out today and purchase a new Media Center PC knowing that the DRM features step far beyond the legal boundaries they are required to comply?
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by AgamemnonRD
June 13, 2009 10:51 PM PDT
- Doesn't anyone remember the court case about VCR's. It's, Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States, and it says that "the making of individual copies of complete television shows for purposes of time-shifting does not constitute copyright infringement, but is fair use". Therefore, the American Public has the right to copy their TV shows and it will take an act of Congress to change it. Of course, it appears that the U.S. Congress is often bought and paid for by the BIG Corporations so it wouldn't surprise me if DRM Hollywood purchased a new law to make it illegal to tape our favorite shows.
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