Comments on: FreeviewHD content control – don’t panic

By: Gone Digital | Is content transfer essential in a PVR?

Gone Digital | Is content transfer essential in a PVR? — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:02:03 +0000

[...] of HD in the UK, things are slowly changing; although the broadcasts themselves are not encrypted, the programme guide is, and as part of the agreement to access it, makers of boxes have to protect the content [...]

By: Nigel

Nigel — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:52:07 +0000

Many have pointed out the ease with which some of these restrictions can be circumvented, but I suspect that’s not entirely the point.
Unless they’re utterly unrealistic, most broadcasters and programme makers accept that there will be some piracy – and that, presumably is why there are the rules about flagging content in the UK that’s previously been broadcast without protection elsewhere in HD.
Perhaps – and a lawyer would be the best person to ask about this sort of thing – the feeling is that though it can be circumvented, the fact that you will have to at least think about it a bit will make it easier to build a case when people are found distributing infringing material.
If you can show that someone’s taken active steps to make a recording in a way that can be copied, it will surely make it much harder for them to argue that they didn’t do anything wrong.
How often someone may actually be caught and prosecuted for this sort of thing is another matter entirely, of course. Judging by the number of people selling knock-off DVDs in car parks, being caught is not considered a lively eventuality.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:50:11 +0000

I agree that that the extent of Freeview HD’s content control system has been overstated by many and that this is counter productive. Certainly in their current form there isn’t much to worry about and a little extra work will get most open source projects access to the guide (or, as you say, the guide can just be acquired elsewhere)

But surely the fact that these measures can be so (relatively) easily worked around makes them utterly useless? I mean if the content is broadcast unencrypted, then even without any electronic epg, a suitable tuner could record it by putting times in manually (with a bit of leeway for overrunning)

I just don’t understand what they (the content creators and distributors who presumably wanted it) think will be achieved by this. I’ve yet to come across a show that’s come from the states to UK terrestrial TV that isn’t available as a torrent long before it’s shown on TV here (and as I understand it, unless things change in the US most of these shows won’t be protected from copying here either) As for UK shows, well, again, if the content protection is bypassed so easily – what exactly are they achieving?

As far as content control goes, it’s pretty light and it’s hard to see it having any affect 99.99% of legitimate consumers. But it’s also hard to see how it might have any affect on copyright infringement (which I assume is the goal).