Hollywood's controversial request for a waiver on Selectable Output Control (SOC) has finished the first phase of its cycle. Monday was the last day for comments on the big studio's petition for a lift of the Federal Communications Commission's ban on SOC. About 20 prominent parties have filed on the issue. Not surprisingly, TV content streamers AT&T and DIRECTV stand out among supporters of the plan, but there are nay-sayers and skeptics too.

As Ars Technica has reported, the petition comes from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which wants a waiver on that restriction in the case of high-definition movies broadcast prior to their release on DVD. SOC lets video distributors close down analog or digital output on broadcasts, which could be used to force HD downscaling to SD and/or block output to devices such as DVRs, an option that MPAA says will allow it to more securely distribute early-run studio films on TV. "The Petitioners' theatrical movies are too valuable in this early distribution window to risk their exposure to unauthorized copying," MPAA wrote to the FCC in June. "Distribution over insecure outputs would facilitate the illegal copying and redistribution of this high value content, causing untold damage to the DVD and other 'downstream' markets."

As of now, well over 500 individuals and groups have filed opinions with the Commission, most of them brief. Here is a summary of the longer comments.

Go for it!

AT&T enthusiastically backs this proposal. "MPAA has persuasively shown that grant of its waiver request will expand consumer choice by allowing consumers to purchase and enjoy high definition digital movies in their own homes prior to release of such films on pre-recorded media, and thus much early than they can today," three attorneys for the telco wrote. Like MPAA, AT&T notes that the proposal would not "alter the current application of the Commission’s encoding rules." This truism may calm anxieties about the proposal, but the point, obviously, is to alter SOC rules after a given date in the future.

A vice president of DIRECTV takes a similar stance. "The requested waiver would not deprive any consumer of services she currently has access to, and applies only for the limited period necessary to safeguard this valuable content during a more accelerated release window," DIRECTV veep Susan Eid told the FCC. And, not surprisingly, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association says it backs the proposal. "The FCC's [SOC ban] stands as the only impediment to the emergence of new business models for the distribution of early-release movies over cable and other MVPD systems," NCTA's comments conclude. "It is time to lift that restriction so that consumers can benefit from access to more highly attractive programming for home viewing."

The MPAA petition's other cheerers include tax cut crusader Grover Norquist, whose filing emphasizes the convenience of watching early-run movies at home. "The logistics involved in gathering the family and transporting them to a theater, finding seats together, and all that is involved in that, not to mention the cost of feeding a family at a theater, has put the idea of first-run movies out of reach for many Americans," Norquist wrote.

The National Taxpayers' Union, which files with the FCC on spectrum auctions, VoIP issues, and the proposed XM/Sirius merger, also supports the waiver. NTU's filing claims that the MPAA plan "does not seem to have massive opposition precisely because so many facets of the private sector stand to benefit."

Certain parts of the private sector would beg to disagree.

No, no, no

The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) requested and received an extension on this proceeding. The group represents companies running about 30,000 theaters across the country. NATO's 17-page filing opposes the waiver request. "For our millions of patrons who love the unique and compelling experience of seeing movies on the big screen with quality sound, consumer choice is disserved [sic] by business models that threaten the viability of cinemas," NATO warns. "If, as we believe inevitable, neighborhood cinemas begin disappearing in the wake of collapsed windows, consumers will recognize too late that the new gizmo of early release movies in the home was hardly worth the novelty."

The Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA) also says nay on the proposal. IFTA represents indie studios like Morgan Creek and Lionsgate. The groups' eight-page statement calls the MPAA plan "extraordinarily vague as to exactly how this new service would work." The IFTA eyes with suspicion the intent of the big studios that launched this proceeding: Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Brothers. "The Petition's request for more exclusive access for only studio-supplied content simply reinforces the alarming trend that US television increasingly is only a channel for content by a few companies to reach the public, contrary to the purpose of the Communications Act and sound public policy," IFTA's comment concludes.

Ditto on the vagueness issue, warns the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), whose filing worries that "the inevitable consequence" of giving the studios SOC power "will be the loss of viewing, for which consumers have paid or are willing to pay, by consumers who may not be interested in recording and may not even own a recorder or have any Internet connection." CEA calls SOC a "blunt instrument," the use of which "must be balanced against the harm inflicted on innocent consumers and on the public interest."

Eight nonprofits have also weighed in against the MPAA request. Seven groups led by Public Knowledge argue that granting MPAA's petition will "give MPAA members unprecedented and undesirable control over consumer device design..."

"The waiver is not limited to analog outputs, and would allow the selective disabling of any output on MVPD networks. Should the MPAA choose to turn off other types of connections, it will harm even more users. Perhaps worse, it will give content owners the leverage to decide which outputs should be used in consumer electronics. Using this leverage, content owners could force consumer electronics designers and manufacturers to agree to almost any conditions to display SOC content, including design choices which are consumer-unfriendly and which are not driven by reasonable consumer desires or technological considerations."

The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) observes that although the waiver is not "purportedly" directed at home recording, it could have the effect of hurting sales of home devices that support digital recording. "In other words, the FCC's giving MPAA members the unbridled and nonreviewable discretion to turn off recordable interfaces will allow them to do what neither the Congress nor the courts have tolerated since the Betamax case: to disable technology simply because it supports home recording by consumers," HRRC says.

Well, maybe

A handful of groups think that the waiver ought to be granted with various strings attached. The agency that helps coordinate digital copy protection standards for the so-called "5C" manufacturing group (Toshiba, Intel, Matsushita, Sony, and Hitachi) is skeptical of the plan. SOC "cannot be left to the unfettered discretion of content owners and MVPDs," warns the Digital Transition Licensing Administrator (DTLA). "Such unchecked authority places far too much power in the hands of content owners, to the potential detriment of all other equally-important stakeholders."

But DTLA says it can live with the idea under two conditions: First, the waiver must be limited to early-delivery high-definition movies, and for a limited time. As for the second condition, Ars' reading of this syntactically ambiguous paragraph [below] suggests that DTLA opposes SOC outputs that will inhibit the copying abilities of home viewing systems.

"SOC cannot be applied to 'de-select' any digital output that will (i) protect content as 'copy never/display only' with no analog output allowed, (ii) protect content from unauthorized redistribution outside the home or personal network, and (iii) prevent retransmission across the home network except to downstream devices that meet these same three conditions."

TiVo will accept the proposal if the waiver only lasts two years so that all parties can evaluate the results. After that time, "stakeholders will have the opportunity to raise concerns or express support based on their experiences with the Service," TiVO argues. Plus the service must be able to work with all CableLabs approved outputs. And the FCC must oversee the process to prevent discrimination against certain technologies. A Sony vice president filed somewhat similar comments.

And the American Association of People with Disabilities takes no position on the matter, but asks that if the FCC approves the waiver, the Commission ensures that SOC does not harm closed captioning, video description, or set-top box design accessibility.

Needless to say, MPAA has repeatedly met and filed with the FCC on behalf of its request. The comment period of this cycle on SOC has now concluded. Replies to comments are due on July 31.

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