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Vol 11 No 3 - September 2006

Protecting Digital Television: Controlling Copyright or Consumer?
Matt Jackson, AssociateProfessor and Head, Department of Telecommunications, Pennsylvania State University

Many countries, including Australia, are in the midst of a conversion from analogue to digital broadcasting . As television stations prepare to transmit high quality, digital programs over the airwaves, the rights holders are concerned that users will begin to trade and share their content online, mirroring the huge number of illegal mp3 song files that are traded on the internet. In the United States, copyright owners successfully lobbied the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement a ‘broadcast flag’ rule to impose technological protection measures on television reception equipment. The FCC rule was struck down by an appeals court on jurisdictional grounds, but the push for a broadcast flag scheme remains strong. The current proposal would allow users to record TV programs for later viewing, but would prevent those recordings from being distributed on the internet. Consumer advocates argue that the proposal will harm innovation and limit consumer uses that are permissible under copyright law. This article suggests that policymakers should be most concerned with how the current proposal might restrict creative fair uses that further important free speech interests. Digital technology allows television viewers to reuse television content in creative ways to critique social norms and create new meanings. Protecting this type of use is more important than issues regarding time or space shifting.

 

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