The BBC has been granted provisional approval for the BBC to introduce copy protection for content on the Freeview HD platform.
With Freeview HD closing in on a commercial launch, focus has continued on what level of copy protection should be put in.
The BBC believes that having no copy protection provides a barrier for getting content on to a platform, and believes that content makers will not be prepared to go the extra mile for Freeview HD unless they feel their intellectual property is protected.
Essentially the fear is that with the content now available in glorious HD quality, people will not want to go out and buy DVDs and Blu-rays because it will be too easy to record and copy content either to physical media or to hard drives.
Provisonally approved
And Ofcom's decision is that the BBC will provisionally be allowed to compress the content and offer a decompression algorithm to equipment manufacturers.
The proviso given by Ofcom is that the BBC should "restrict the availability of programme listing information for HD TV services only to receivers that implement content management technology".
What that means is that you will be able to record to your DVR but not then copy it to another device unless it supported the same copy protection technology.
Justified objective
"In view of the fuller submission provided by the BBC, Ofcom is currently minded to approve its request for a multiplex licence amendment subject to consultation responses, on the basis that in principle, content management is a justified objective which ensures that the broadest range of HD content is made available to citizens and consumers," said Ofcom's statement.
"Ofcom has considered alternative proposals for implementation put forward by the BBC and is minded to grant approval under the amended licence on the basis that the proposals are the least intrusive means of achieving effective copy management to deliver the benefits of a wider range of content to consumers."
Disagree? Then you should raise your complaint by April 5 when the final consultation ends and the decision is made final.
Your comments (6) Click to add a new comment
lkcl
January 25th 2010
6. This article is factually incorrect. I've spoken to OFCOM and, under the Telecommunications Act of 2003 they are not involved in the Regulation of the BBC. The BBC Canvas Project is regarded as a "Non-Service" activity, by which that means that it is not actually the BBC providing viewers with "Service", it would in fact be British Telecom, Talk Talk and any other ISP that wants to distribute the "data feed" (which comes solely and exclusively from the BBC's Media Servers) who are providing "Service", and I do not believe that OFCOM would even be involved in the regulation of ISP "data", either.
So, where exactly did this impression come from that OFCOM can "grant permission" for something that it is not legally entitled to regulate?
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lkcl
January 24th 2010
5. it's been proven time and time again that DRM is a failure, simply from the fact that the numbers of people involved means that DRM *will* be bypassed, period. even if it involves a camera in front of a TV.
thus, the only thing "achieved" by DRM is to increase the cost of hardware and software (which wastes tax payers' money).
there is no DRM now, on FreeView, so why does it *have* to be added to IPTV?
if data providers want to force license payers' money to be spent on DRM or they won't "allow" their data to be distributed: fine. great! more license payers money is available to spend on local programmes! which would be absolutely fantastic.
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anteaus
January 23rd 2010
4. Seems to me that if they do this then it reinforces the argument for scrapping the TV licence.
This is becoming more and more like the cable/satellite TV business-model. As such we should have the right choose whether or not to subscribe to it.
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carl_d
January 22nd 2010
3. more drm, more examples of varying content only available on a multitude of different devices and more commercial deals leading to a fragmented end user experience and more importantly more cost.
when will the commercial sector realise that drm simply throttles the adoption of digital media and new technology. most people do not want to sell copies of recorded content, they simply want the right to reuse whatever they have legitimately acquired for personal use across their own legitimately purchased technology, without the need for "a box for this, a box for that, oh and another box for something else that hasn't been thought of yet.
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tech89
January 22nd 2010
2. This won;t stop people from getting HD films if they wanted to. They can easily get them from piratebay, burn it to disc, for so much less hassle involved.
It's copy protection that drives people to find an easier way for content to work with all playable devices, which usually means piracy.
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tech89
January 22nd 2010
1. So we can have HDTV we just can't record any of the good stuff? This is stupid. No doubt this will be used as an excuse to raise the price of a TV Licence.
They're going to introduce some new technology which will not be compatible with the technology everyone's got today already? Well bravo, they've messed up again.
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