Digital Television Anti-Copying Agreement Assumes Something Worth a Crap on Television
Washington,
DC - Movie studios and consumer-electronics companies reached an agreement that
protects digital-television broadcasts from being copied and traded
Napster-style over the Internet, negotiators said on Monday.
The group reported that most industry players agreed that digital televisions, recordable DVDs and other devices should recognize a "broadcast flag" that would allow consumers to make personal copies but prevent them from distributing those copies online, said negotiators involved in the process.
Advocates of the new system agree that there are countless hours of mind-numbing, intelligence-insulting programming that must be protected from copying. An unnamed TV executive for Fox Television stated to a group of reporters, "Napster-like illegal peer-to-peer trading must not be allowed to rob great writers and performers of the immeasurable value of their contributions to television and society."