Over at the EFF blog, Derek Slater makes an excellent point:
Great gadgets for your music collection are all over CES: servers that stream to devices throughout your house, slick portable players and music cell phones, place-shifting software that lets you–and your friends–hear your collection from any computer, and much more. But if you want to do more with your DVD collection, you can basically forget about it.
The reason why is, of course, the DMCA. While anyone can build a device that rips music CDs and make use of your MP3s, no one can build a device that unlocks the DRM on DVDs without getting Hollywood’s permission first. Sure, you can find software online to help you rip your DVDs and put them on your iPod, but you won’t find such features built into consumer products on display here. (Kaleidescape, which offers a high-end multi-thousand dollar DVD server and got sued for it, is the exception that proves the rule.)
This fact is even more striking in light of all the emerging video delivery system here, including Microsoft’s IPTV system, cell phone video services, and movie downloading systems. You don’t have to look hard at CES to find a product that aims to help consumers acquire video on the device of their choice. Yet DVDs remain just as limited as they ever were.
I’ve made this point before. I always get really frustrated when DMCA supporters assert that the DMCA has been on the books for almost a decade and no harm has been done. It’s impossible to predict which specific devices would have been invented without the DMCA. But there’s obviously a Kaleidescape-shaped hole in the consumer electronics market, and I’m having trouble thinking of another explanation.
I have come to the conclusion that the Net neutrality issue has become for tech policy what Angelina Jolie is to the world of Hollywood celebrity: big crowds; a caravan of reporters and photographers; swarms of groupies and gawkers… all these things follow wherever they go. That was the case again today in Las Vegas when a panel discussion took place at CES about Net neutrality.
Before a jam-packed room (many of whom were Washington lobbyists, reporters and analysts), Paul Misener, VP of Public Policy for Amazon, Tom Tauke Executive VP of Public Affairs for Verizon, and Deborah Platt Majoras the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission debated the future of Net neutrality (NN) regulation. Mike Feazel of Communications Daily moderated.
Feazel began by asking if there will be a Telecom Act in the new Congress and whether NN will be a part of it. Amazon’s Misener said that we will get a Telecom Act in this Congress and NN will be front and center. And it will pass. But Verizon’s Tauke disagreed saying that it is very unlikely we will see passage of a bill this session because “we don’t have the dynamics to pass a Telecom Act.” There is no major issue or compelling reason for action, Tauke said. Moreover, energy and environmental issues will trump telecom policy issues in the relevant committees of Congress now that the Democrats are in charge. And the franchising issue has largely been resolved with the FCC’s latest franchise reform order, he said. Plus, don’t forget about the Iraq debate, he noted. But Paul Misener said that Senators Dorgan and Snowe have already reintroduced their non-partisan NN bill this week and that legislation is expected shortly in the House.
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Via Julian, Christopher Yoo has an interview at Network Performance Daily. Art Brodsky has a rebuttal, and Yoo ripostes.
I have to say I don’t find this argument by Yoo terribly persuasive:
Allowing broadband providers to use different protocols can also expand the number of dimensions along which networks can compete with one another for business. Employing different protocols might permit smaller network players to survive by targeting sub-segments of the larger market, in much the same way that specialty stores do when confronted with competition from a low-cost, mass-market retailer. For example, network diversity might make it possible for three last-mile networks to coexist: one optimized for traditional Internet applications (such as e-mail and website access); a second designed to facilitate time-sensitive applications (such as streaming video and VoIP), and a third incorporating security features to facilitate e-commerce and to guard against viruses, spam, and other undesirable aspects of life on the Internet. By mandating that the entire Internet operate on a single protocol, network neutrality threatens to foreclose this outcome and instead force networks to compete on price and network size-considerations that reinforce the advantages already enjoyed by the largest players.
The whole point of the Internet is that it is (as the name implies) interconnected. An “Internet” service that only connected you to a subset of the world’s computer users would be dramatically less valuable than the current, public Internet.
But for quality of service to work, it would have to work from end to end. Congestion can happen at any point along the network, so it makes little sense to do a lot of work offering performance guarantees for the last mile while the backbone remains a best-effort network. So as far as I can see, any prioritization scheme would have to be adopted by the whole Internet. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to have different ISPs running different protocols.
I’m also not sure I understand the point of the Akamai example, since I don’t believe anyone thinks that Akamai would become illegal under a network neutrality requirement. Obviously, if there’s language that would inadvertently ban Akamai, that would be something everyone would agree needs to be changed, but I haven’t seen an example of language that would make Akamai illegal.
In an increasingly digital world filled with intangible products and instantaneous downloads, does the world really need packaged media anymore? That was the theme of an interesting panel I sat in on this morning at CES in Las Vegas. Panelists debated the future of packaged, physical media (CDs, DVDs, tapes, etc) and generally concluded that it was not dead just yet.
For example, DVDs as a form of packaged media are not dead but growth is slowing, argued Stephanie Ethier, an analyst with market research firm InStat. As broadband speeds grow, however, this could change. Homes need to have roughly 10 Megs of bandwidth to have a satisfactory movie downloading experience, she said, and that world could be upon us soon. 18% of music will be distributed electronically by 2010, she said, but there is still value in the CD due to the “collection value” many users place on having the actual physical disc in their home somewhere. Don Patrican of Maxell agreed saying that “people are collectors by nature” and that they love the idea of having a small personal and physical library in their home that they can see and feel. I thought that was a very good point which I can certainly relate to since I do that myself.
But I then asked a question about whether or not this was all just a generational thing and wondered if my kids would have ANY physical media / storage devices or formats when they are adults in the 2020’s. In response, Don Patrician said we shouldn’t confuse early adopters with the mass market. “Many demographic groups will not embrace all this new technology for some time.” Rich Lappenbusch of Microsoft generally agreed saying that “Many families still don’t trust technology” and want the security that comes along with a physical backup copy.
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OK, I like Apple as much as the next guy (OK, quite a bit more than the next guy) but it’s a little bit ridiculous that Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone (a product that’s still 6 months away from release) is the top story on Google News. Aren’t there several wars and an economic suicide going on at the moment?
I’m one of those people who has an Apple problem. This year it looks like, as expected, the big announcements are an iPod phone and a set-top box. Both of them look pretty cool to me.
Another interesting tidbit is that Apple reports having sold 1.3 million movies in the first four months. That’s obviously a drop in the bucket compared to total DVD sales, but it’s likely to be a significant fraction of high-definition DVD sales. The Wall Street Journal reports that there are about 700,000 DVD players in homes right now. If we assume that each of those customers have purchased 8 DVDs (which is probably high, since many of those “DVD players” are actually PS3s), then total high-def DVD sales are in the ballpark of six million units, meaning that Apple has sold about 20 percent as many movies as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD put together. And that’s with only one studio’s movies (Disney’s) on offer.
Of course, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD boast higher picture quality, so this isn’t an entirely fair comparison. But Apple (and other online vendors) can more easily ramp up picture quality as higher bandwidth becomes available. So it’s at least possible that the winner of the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle will be “none of the above.”
Update: Of course I meant that there are 700,000 high-definition DVD players.
I spent most of the day yesterday at CES covering video game panel discussions. Today, I attended several panel discussions on the future of video distribution over TV, cable, satellite, the Web and mobile devices. Two of these panels were entitled “Television 2.0: As Cable, Telco, Satellite, OnDemand and Broadband Redefine the Future of Entertainment & Communications” and “Embracing the Connected Consumer: Entertainment, Content and Technology–From Home to the Mobile and Wi-Fi Universe.” Later I attended a panel featuring TV industry heavyweights from DirecTV, EchoStar, Time Warner, Hearst-Argyle and Cox Communications. Here are some highlights from those discussions:
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As usual, my co-bloggers are falling down on the job when it comes to tooting their own horns. First, James Gattuso has an interesting article over at The American on AT&T’s concessions in the BellSouth merger:
Even those who favor net neutrality should be upset that this rule was imposed through the backdoor of the FCC, after failing to gain acceptance through Congress’s front door. Backdoor policymaking hurts the public, as the checks and balances of the normal policymaking process are short-circuited. More directly, hijacking merger reviews to alter policy hurts firms and their customers–instead of a fair review on the merits, transactions are held hostage to political whims. Will this become a precedent for future FCC reviews? Perhaps not–this case may be unique. But don’t count on it.
And on Cato’s website, here’s an MP3 of Jim Harper discussing his recent paper on data mining and government surveillance. If you haven’t had time to read the paper, here’s a chance to get a 5-minute summary in podcast format.
Dave Weigel points out MyDeathSpace, a site that provides links to the MySpace pages of people who have recently died. Dave is counting the hours until Congress bans the site. I’m not so sure, though. There’s no doubt that the idea is tasteless, and I certainly wonder about anyone who visits the site regularly. But it’s hard to think of a good rationale to make the site illegal. I mean, you can’t just make it illegal to link to web sites created by dead people, and the site isn’t really hurting anyone. Of course, that doesn’t mean Congress won’t think of some way to score political points by shutting the site down, but maybe, like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the site will continue to be tacky but not illegal.
WASHINGTON, January 8, 2007–Both the high-tech and the mainstream press go ga-ga over the Consumer Electronics Show. Forty years old, it’s the country’s largest annual trade show, and it officially opens this morning in Las Vegas.
What’s not to like in more than 1.2 million square feet of electronic glitz and glimmer? On Sunday night, Microsoft’s Bill Gates previewed how your car will communicate with your electronic address book and your digital music player. Verizon Wireless demonstrated how you will soon get television from Comedy Central, Fox, and NBC directly on your cell phone. And NetGear announced a “media receiver” for watching TV, movies and Internet videos from the comfort of your leather couch. Think of it as video iPod with an HDTV connection.
The impresario of all these digital goodies is Gary Shapiro, the chief lobbyist for the Consumer Electronics Association. CEA is the tech trade association that sponsors the annual event, raking in more than $80 million. But for Shapiro, who looks and acts like the proverbial kid in the candy shop for four days every January, the show is about more than just money. It’s about scoring points for his group’s public policy agenda in Washington.
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The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.