[UUronl]

 http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20041019-4324.html



Might this be a prelude to finally offering HD via On-Demand?

 

[michaeltscott]

We've discussed this in other forums. (Starz!/Encore opposed this). The use of Copy Never would seem to be against the FCC's rules. CFR Title 47, Part §76.1904 , paragraph (b)(1)(ii) states that Copy Never encoding can only be used for Video-on-demand and Pay Per View business models; if you read Part §76.1902 , paragraphs (q) and (t), you'll see that there are definitions given for both Subscription-on-demand and Video-on-demand; HBO On Demand and Showtime On Demand fit the former description.


It actually makes some sense that Copy Never should be applicable to Subscription-on-demand, since Copy One Generation Subscription-on-demand becomes make-as-many-non-duplicatible-copies-as-you-want-until-the-feature-is-removed. You can make a copy, put in another blank disc or tape and immediately play the feature again and make another copy, on and on. However, the law is currently written to disallow that usage (or so I interpret it--I'm not a lawyer).

 

[Ou8thisSN]

man, whatever, who cares? if its not HD, whats the point of archiving it anyway?

 

[UUronl]

Michael,


The article outlines the FCC articles you speak of, but represents the FCC's stance as ambiguous enough as to allow the restriction HBO and Cinemax just announced. Since I am not a lawyer, I cannot vouch for any interpretations I might make either. The article does suggest that the FCC could further clarify and make this sort of behavior illegal, but their assertion is that this is not currently the case.


As to the comment that it isn't HD so who cares, I only posted it here because I strongly believe this could be a prelude to HBO/Max offering HD on the OnDemand channels. Even if the FCC steps in and bars this flagging behavior, in the short term HBO/Max's decision to implement this could get HD HBO/Max OnDemand into the wild.