[FYI] ALERT: Thank Philips for Standing Up to Hollywood

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect15.12.html#I

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ALERT: Thank Philips for Standing Up to Hollywood

Philips CEO Rejects Entertainment-Industry Technology Veto

Issued 05/03/02
Expires 05/17/02 

Introduction: 

As Hollywood's Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (BPDG) rushes to 
establish a laundry-list of mandatory and forbidden
"features" for digital television devices -- including PCs -- one 
company has called on Congress to expose the process to the
"sunlight of government." Philips North America CEO Lawrence J. 
Blanford broke ranks with the other BPDG participants
when he testified before Senator Hollings' Commerce committee on 
April 25th, blasting the process, calling its direction "not in
the interest of sound public policy, not in the interest of the 
affected industries and certainly not in the interest of the 
consumer." 

The BPDG mandate is meant to be the kinder, gentler face of 
Hollywood's bid to win a veto over new technology, a
"consensus" involving all interested parties (except, of course, the 
public, the press and the small entrepreneurial companies
whose technology would be banned under a BPDG regime). While the 
whole world has been blasting Senator Hollings'
Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), the 
secretive BPDG group have been establishing a
standard that bans free and open source television software and 
leaves a veto on new technologies in the hands of the studios. 

The end result will be a marketplace full of devices with components 
that have been effectively specified by Hollywood; a
world where "tamper-friendly" software licensed under free/open-
source licenses cannot interact with commodity PC
components; a world startlingly like the one promised by the CBDTPA. 

Mr. Blanford's brave stand marks the first public indication that the 
BPDG process is anything but a consensus. As Philips
stands up to Hollywood's self-centered assertion that only they are 
qualified to assess the value of new technology, we need to
recognize the risks Philips is taking on our behalf. 

What YOU Can Do Now: 

[...]

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