# CBS Broadcast Flag



## rhoops (Jan 8, 2005)

This is from an e-mail that CBS sent to Affiliates:

---
Broadcast Flag

In an effort to avoid the problems the music industry has had with proliferation of illegal copies of their content on the Internet, we have been taking a proactive role to mark our High Definition content with a Flag. The purpose of the Broadcast Flag is to send a signal to the consumers equipment that indicates this content shall not be redistributed on the Internet. The appearance of the Viidoo web site that allows anyone with a video capture / tuner card in their PC to post a TV program on the internet, underscores the importance of Broadcast Flag. Many of our content partners and providers are requiring that we agree in our program contracts to encode the Broadcast Flag on the studio master tape and pass the signal all the way through the broadcast chain ( i.e., network Broadcast Center, satellite, affiliate and to the home).


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Interesting. So, will this effect the proper usage of any TiVo in any way? I guess, specifically, the S3?


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## Pab Sungenis (Apr 13, 2002)

Wasn't the broadcast flag shot down by the courts?


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## MediaLivingRoom (Dec 10, 2002)

big brother is coming....


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

I wonder if there is any relation to what people are seeing in this thread over in teh HR10-250 forum. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=320913 It looks like the latest version of the HR10-250 software might be reacting differently to something in the stream. Maybe that is the prescence of this flag.


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## 1003 (Jul 14, 2000)

*Be afraid*
be very afraid. Its true for OTA but not DirecTV from satellite...

I love the smell of a conspiracy in the morning...


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## ajwees41 (May 7, 2006)

JJ said:


> *Be afraid*
> be very afraid. Its true for OTA but not DirecTV from satellite...
> 
> I love the smell of a conspiracy in the morning...


It's also true on digital cable on a Motorola 6412 with firewire. I can't capture anything from CBS.

ajwees41


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## petew (Jul 31, 2003)

From the MPAA's own FAQ


> assure consumers a continued source of attractive, free, over-the-air programming without limiting the consumers ability to make personal copies


So the Broadcast flag should not prevent Tivo from working, though it will prevent TivoToGo of HD content.


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## pkscout (Jan 11, 2003)

petew said:


> From the MPAA's own FAQ
> 
> So the Broadcast flag should not prevent Tivo from working, though it will prevent TivoToGo of HD content.


In theory there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice there is...


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

rhoops said:


> This is from an e-mail that CBS sent to Affiliates:
> 
> ---
> Broadcast Flag
> ...


Ok, so where are all the boneheads saying, "It's not the broadcast flag, it's CCI." ? 

At any rate, that's what the broadcasters are calling it too.


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## minckster (Aug 31, 2006)

CBS, thanks for telling me about the Viidoo website!!


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

I thought broadcast networks were barred from flagging any OTA program?


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Stormspace said:


> Ok, so where are all the boneheads saying, "It's not the broadcast flag, it's CCI." ?
> 
> At any rate, that's what the broadcasters are calling it too.


umm. because this specific report is not about CCI

Note that it ultimately is the content provider that wants the flag and this probably skirts the strikedown of a broadcast flag because it allows for the initial recording and most HD DVRs are not allowing a second copy so no one really notices it.


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## gastrof (Oct 31, 2003)

So this means that there's no off-loading from a TiVo that's been softwared into recognizing the flag? No home-made DVDs? At least, not of HD content?


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## painkiller (Jun 23, 2005)

Any chance we can get more info about this email?

Like an address/url or news source? How recent was this?


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## samo (Oct 7, 1999)

I'm completely confused about this issue. Can somebody tell me if these broadcast flags will have any effect on satellite DVRs? In particular, will some CBS programming have a flag that will wipe out recordings in 90 minutes? Is it just OTA and cable or satellite providers are also included? The way it sounds, if master tape has these flags in it, then it will be present on satellite as well. Does DVR have anything to do with recognition of the flag? If satellite DVRs do not respond to the flags now, will they have to make their DVRs compliant with the flags at some point in a future? One of the reasons I'm confused is that I never had any problems or noticed any flags even on PPV and premium channels (I subscribe to both Dish and DirecTV and haven't noticed any flags on either one).


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## shady (May 31, 2002)

minckster said:


> CBS, thanks for telling me about the Viidoo website!!


Exactly what I was thinking


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## srothkin (Sep 13, 2006)

As long as the Tivo allows me to record a program and watch it when I want to (even if that's 9 months down the road), I don't care if it prevents me from copying somewhere else. I just want to watch it once (whenever I get to it) and then delete it.


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## 1003 (Jul 14, 2000)

*Somebody*
with far more time and skill is likely to extract and post a copy of programs. I just want to watch the broadcast in its original form over component output. There is also a method for peventing viewing altogether on the HDMI port on the unit requiring use of another output.

Reducing the quality of the picture is going to make me less likely to watch the program on TiVo. It could be dealt with in a pasive sort of way but TiVo/DirecTV software seems to handle this condition badly. Media Center 2005 seems to respect the 'copy protected' value without reducing the on screen quality like TiVo (HR10-250 'HDTiVo') does on most every show involving Jerry Bruckheimer. This is a general observaton based on the shows I have seen this issue, i'm sure there are more from other producers. Apparently the empowerment is not with the network but with the 'copyright holder' of the programming.

Why do producers want to create a problem for those who just want to watch TV programs. It feels like we are being unfairly punished for just trying to watch TV because some folks have figured out a way to copy illegally..

*Shame on you CBS* for reducing my enjoyment in such a sneaky way, just because you can't prevent some skilled folks from ripping off your content...


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## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

Pab Sungenis said:


> Wasn't the broadcast flag shot down by the courts?


The courts shot down an FCC rule requiring devices to honor the broadcast flag saying the FCC had no such authority. Attempts to run through Congress a bill to give the FCC the authority have so far failed (but they're still trying to get it through before the new Congress comes in).

It doesn't stop devices from honoring it anyway if their manufacturing companies were stupid enough to implement it.

It's likely already implemented in the CableCard standard since it's part of their wet dream.


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## d_anders (Oct 12, 2000)

petew said:


> From the MPAA's own FAQ
> 
> So the Broadcast flag should not prevent Tivo from working, though it will prevent TivoToGo of HD content.


True, but for the sake of "TiVoToGO" I would be happy (for now) if TiVo (via acceptance via Cablelabs) would simply support SD content for MRV and TiVo on the S3s, and also "downvert" HD content to SD for the purposes of MRV to S2s, and TiVo2Go on laptops.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> umm. because this specific report is not about CCI
> 
> Note that it ultimately is the content provider that wants the flag and this probably skirts the strikedown of a broadcast flag because it allows for the initial recording and most HD DVRs are not allowing a second copy so no one really notices it.


So, what is it? Based on forum postings it can't possibly be the broadcast flag, can it? Maybe it doesn't exist at all and this is a hoax.

Any type of broadcast flag technology is bad because of the potential to mismanage it. They may be allowing one copy now, but at some point the content providers are going to realize that just maybe forcing ppl to watch live will generate more ad dollars.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

I think this is a hoax.

There's a million regulations to dig though but I beleive that it is currently illegal to flag boradcast content.

Beyond that- real world I record stuff left and right from a CBS O&O station and never ever have hit a flag. So it doesn't exist that I've seen.


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## ajwees41 (May 7, 2006)

MichaelK said:


> I think this is a hoax.
> 
> There's a million regulations to dig though but I beleive that it is currently illegal to flag boradcast content.
> 
> Beyond that- real world I record stuff left and right from a CBS O&O station and never ever have hit a flag. So it doesn't exist that I've seen.


It's only through a S3 tivo or a HD/DVR from you cable company and Not OTA. It's ABC,NBC,CBS doing it.

A Copy Control Information (CCI) flag can be embedded in an mpeg2 transport stream descriptor which defines the copy rights for that content. The CCI flag consists of 2 bits whose meanings are as follows:
BINARY
HEX
DECIMAL
MEANING

00
0x00
0
Copy Freely - No authentication or encryption required.

01
0x01
1
Copy No More

10
0x02
2
Copy Once - After 1 copy made the content is then marked with CCI of 01 (Copy No More) or 11 (Copy Never)

11
0x03
3
Copy Never - Only fully authorized devices may decode

ajwees41


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

ajwees41 said:


> It's only through a S3 tivo or a HD/DVR from you cable company and Not OTA. It's ABC,NBC,CBS doing it.


End result, what does this *mean* for an S3 TiVo owner? We can record and watch whenever we want (as usual) but we can't extract the digital copy for TiVoToGo (which isn't available yet for S3 anyway) or for sharing with friends?

Or does it go further than that?


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

Fofer said:


> End result, what does this *mean* for an S3 TiVo owner? We can record and watch whenever we want (as usual) but we can't extract the digital copy for TiVoToGo (which isn't available yet for S3 anyway) or for sharing with friends?
> 
> Or does it go further than that?


Basically what this is doing is adding restrictions on content that was never there before. Sure, you may not be affected NOW, but who's to say it won't bite you later. By that time they'll claim to have been doing it for years with no complaints. Complain now.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

ajwees41 said:


> It's only through a S3 tivo or a HD/DVR from you cable company and Not OTA. It's ABC,NBC,CBS doing it.
> 
> A Copy Control Information (CCI) flag can be embedded in an mpeg2 transport stream descriptor which defines the copy rights for that content. The CCI flag consists of 2 bits whose meanings are as follows:
> BINARY
> ...


that I KNOW for a fact is currently illegal.

search my name- I had all kinds of problems with erroneous CCI flags from My provider and apparently a bug in 8.0.1a so I researched that to death. I know more about CCI and that part of the regulations then any human should have to endure.

Beyond that- My cable company sends WCBS, the mothership itslef, and after I got the mess straigtened out I can record whatever I want on the S3 from the cableco's feed too. In fact my cable company's head-end engineer checked with the engineering staff at WCBS to make sure they weren't sending along anything on the feed they give my cablecompany.


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## ajwees41 (May 7, 2006)

MichaelK said:


> that I KNOW for a fact is currently illegal.
> 
> search my name- I had all kinds of problems with erroneous CCI flags from My provider and apparently a bug in 8.0.1a so I researched that to death. I know more about CCI and that part of the regulations then any human should have to endure.
> 
> Beyond that- My cable company sends WCBS, the mothership itslef, and after I got the mess straigtened out I can record whatever I want on the S3 from the cableco's feed too. In fact my cable company's head-end engineer checked with the engineering staff at WCBS to make sure they weren't sending along anything on the feed they give my cablecompany.


Would that also be the same for a signal through the cable company dvr?

ajwees41


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Fofer said:


> End result, what does this *mean* for an S3 TiVo owner? We can record and watch whenever we want (as usual) but we can't extract the digital copy for TiVoToGo (which isn't available yet for S3 anyway) or for sharing with friends?
> 
> Or does it go further than that?


I beleive the current state of the regulations (untill screwed with by any new laws) is that OTA channels are totally free for you to do whatever you want with. There will be no effect to the s3, MRV, or TTG at all.

Cable content CAN be flagged with the CCI 0x02 (or equivilent bits- as there are other ones with the same restiction if analog stuff is going on too- again if you want to learn too much- then search for my name and CCI- I'm no expert but i did read everything that everyone pointed me to)- which restricts recorded content to ONE copy. In theory this is a problem for MRV and TTG. You will be able to record content to the S3 and then make JUST ONE more copy- whether it be to MRV the content on ONE more tivo or the somehow TTG it (if that every gets alloweded for cablecard content).

Once a CCI 0x02 has been copied then it and it's copy get changed to 0x01(or equivelent) and then can no longer be copied ever again. SO any more MRV or TTG will be dead in the water.

CCI 0x03 (or it's equivelnet) is ONLY LEGAL for PPV- that restricts the Tivo to recording the show and playing it back for 90 minutes later only. So you can record that content but it will self distruct after 90 minutes. Tivo is pretty cool actually how it works- for example you could start recording a PPV at 9:00 that is 2 hours then at 11 start to watch it- it will only allow access to the part that is 90- minutes or younger so it will blank the screen for the segment that is up till 9:30 then allow you to watch. After the last bit of the show is 90 minutes old there is no point in keeping it so the tivo nukes it- sort of like the self distructing tapes on mission impossible....

your cable provider might also use CCI 0x00 on anything and then you can do whatever you want.

Currently no one knows of any national channel regularly mandating anything on their channels. But some providers do flag some stations 24/7/365 for whatever reason.

The stations themselves can also pass along CCI flags and the headend is supposed to follwo the more restrictive setting. So If the station sets toon disney to 0x00 but disney decides the goofy movie should be 0x02 then they can insert that flag and the head end should pass it along to the S3.

So end results is:
-all OTA content is free to do what you want with.
- "cable" channels can get flagged with 0x02 which would restrict you to one copy
-PPV can be resticted to 90 minute mission impossible self destruct.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

ajwees41 said:


> Would that also be the same for a signal through the cable company dvr?
> 
> ajwees41


I don't think I was able to acertain if the cable company DVR's are required to abide by the CCI flags or not.

I think dt-dc told me it only applies to cablecard devices but honestly I forget.

I beleive NOT- becasue my cable compnay erroneously flagged like a dozen channels as copy never and they weren't even aware of the mistake till a couple of us S3 users pointed it out to them. I would imagine if the restrictions applied to their own DVR's the past couple years then their customers would have screamed bloody hell.

But I'm not sure if they have another system for those...


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

MichaelK said:


> I think this is a hoax.


May very well be ... no source ... nothing 'confirmable' that I can see ...

However, CBS was one of the most adamant supporters at the FCC (and Congress) for the Broadcast Flag ...


MichaelK said:


> There's a million regulations to dig though but I beleive that it is currently illegal to flag boradcast content.


Well, hard to say without knowing exactly what CBS is doing ...

But ... following the conventional definition of the 'broadcast flag' and what PSIP/metadata generators do when you tell them to apply the 'broadcast flag' ...

No, it's not 'illegal' nor against any regulations to use the 'Broadcast Flag' for broadcast content (either OTA or distributed via cable / dbs).


ajwees41 said:


> A Copy Control Information (CCI) flag can be embedded in an mpeg2 transport stream descriptor which defines the copy rights for that content. The CCI flag consists of 2 bits whose meanings are as follows:


That's not the 'broadcast flag'.

The 'broadcast flag' is defined in the ATSC A/65 (Program and System Information Protocol) standard:
http://www.atsc.org/standards/a_65cr1_with_amend_1.pdf

The 'broadcast flag' is (typically described as) the presence of the Redistribution Control Descriptor ... which is just one of a series of descriptors that can be found in an ATSC bitstream. The Redistribution Control Descriptor is indicated as a Control Descriptor which has a descriptor_tag = 0xAA.

The 'broadcast flag' is on or off ... yes or no ... flagged or not flagged ... technological control of consumer redistribution is signaled or not ...

Ie, the Redistribution Control Descriptor is there (flagged) or not (not flagged).

There's no way of signalling different levels of control (ie, Copy Freely, Copy Once, Copy Never, etc) with the 'broadcast flag'. There is a way to pass optional / additional information that could be used for this type of control ... but, how the additional information might be used to do so has never been defined.

So back to:


MichaelK said:


> There's a million regulations to dig though but I beleive that it is currently illegal to flag boradcast content.


The FCC tried to mandate electronics equipment to respond to the broadcast flag. That was overturned in the courts. However, the Redistribution Control Descriptor is part of the ATSC standard and there is absolutely nothing prohibiting a broadcaster from marking their content with it. As noted above ...


HTH said:


> The courts shot down an FCC rule requiring devices to honor the broadcast flag saying the FCC had no such authority. Attempts to run through Congress a bill to give the FCC the authority have so far failed (but they're still trying to get it through before the new Congress comes in).
> 
> It doesn't stop devices from honoring it anyway if their manufacturing companies were stupid enough to implement it.


That's very true. From what I can tell, most CE companies are likely going to be voluntarily honoring the flag ... most PC component manufacturers are going to be ignoring it ... most PC system manufacturers (ie, Dell distributing a Vista MCE HTPC) will likely be honoring it ...


MichaelK said:


> Beyond that- real world I record stuff left and right from a CBS O&O station and never ever have hit a flag. So it doesn't exist that I've seen.


The ONLY result that voluntary respect of the broadcast flag would have with the current S3 / software would be that content marked with the flag could not be viewed via HDMI EXCEPT with HDCP compliant equipment. Non-HDCP compliant DVI or HDMI equipment could not be used to view flagged content ... while it could be used to view unflagged content. That's it ... so ... unless you have a non-HDCP compliant monitor hooked up via DVI ... not sure how you'd ever know if you ever 'hit a flag'.


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

dt_dc said:


> The ONLY result that voluntary respect of the broadcast flag would have with the current S3 / software would be that content marked with the flag could not be viewed via HDMI EXCEPT with HDCP compliant equipment. Non-HDCP compliant DVI or HDMI equipment could not be used to view flagged content ... while it could be used to view unflagged content. That's it ... so ... unless you have a non-HDCP compliant monitor hooked up via DVI ... not sure how you'd ever know if you ever 'hit a flag'.


Basically ... if you have a non-HDCP complient device hooked up by DVI/HDMI I would expect to see the "Viewing is not permitted using the TiVo Digital media Recorder...Try another TV input" messgage for flagged content.

Or if you have a device that's supposed to be compliant but is having the type of handshake / whatever HDCP problems that's been reported a few (several?) times ... same thing (for flagged content).


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

as always thank's for your help with the regs.

I'd bet that if the flag existed OTA that tivo would obey it in their constant effort to make nice. But just idle speculation on my part.

anyway again as to the hoax nature:



MichaelK said:


> ....
> 
> Beyond that- My cable company sends WCBS, the mothership itslef, and .... In fact my cable company's head-end engineer checked with the engineering staff at WCBS to make sure they weren't sending along anything on the feed they give my cablecompany.


so it's possible this 'email' went out in the past month, but if not it's a hoax.

When we talked my cable company engineer was well aware of CBS's role in preaching for the broadcast flag earlier. That was specifically why he wanted to call and ask them if they were doing it.

(that and the email just doesn't look like it was reviewed by the lawyers in the way it was written as one might expect with something like that)

dt-dc - one last thing- thinking about it some more. - Would a broadcast flag in PSIP be acknowledged by a cablecard device. If I recall cable must pass PSIP data if the tv station gives the cbale head end a feed with that data. But I know for the channel numbers that the cablecard spec says that the PSIP channel map data should be ignorred when a cablecard is in use. So is all the PSIP data dumped and the cablecard would look for CCI flags? Or is the cablecard supposed to look for CCI flags AND check for flag data in PSIP data if it finds it?


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

MichaelK said:


> dt-dc - one last thing- thinking about it some more. - Would a broadcast flag in PSIP be acknowledged by a cablecard device.


I would think that it would be there and present in the stream. The "Redistribution Control Descriptor" is carried along in the same way as other descriptors like content advisory / rating and closed caption information (which CE manufacturers have to respond to) so ...

It should be there in the stream and up to the manufacturer to determine whether (or not) to respond and how. That leaves everyone "open" to (future) FCC regulations (which would require Congress to allow) and / or manufacturers voluntarily respecting the flag ... or future industry agreements ... or whatever ...

Pass it along unaltered and if someone / somewhere decides to do something with it ... there it is.


MichaelK said:


> So is all the PSIP data dumped and the cablecard would look for CCI flags? Or is the cablecard supposed to look for CCI flags AND check for flag data in PSIP data if it finds it?


Also note that the Redistribution Control Descriptor could / can be mapped onto CCI bits. Check out the DCAS licensing agreement:
http://www.opencable.com/downloads/DCASHostLicense.pdf

Under the DCAS license agreement, the definition of the CCI bits shows Bit #5 (which under the DFAST licensing agreement is 'reserved for future use') as a "Redistribution Control Trigger" with a single 0/1 ... flagged / not flagged ... marked / not marked value ...

So, I would presume that the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor (if present) would be carried along in the stream AND/OR the CableCard (if inserted) would also pass a 1 in Bit #5 of the CCI ...

So a CableCard host (with or w/o a CableCard inserted) would respond to the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor as the manufacturer saw fit (or as FCC regulations or industry agreements dictated). A CableCard host with a CableCard installed would also have to potentially respond to Bit #5 of the CCI = 1 ...


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

intersting so sounds as if DCAS perhaps envisions a tweak to the head end software if the broadcast flag regs got reinstituted that the headend would pick up the broadcast version and push a CCI value for it.

It would be real interesting if anyone did start sending the flag over ATSC if anyone would respect it (or even notice- LOL)

I'm thinking S3 MRV/TTG will be the test device once tivo turns them on....


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

dt_dc said:


> So, I would presume that the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor (if present) would be carried along in the stream AND/OR the CableCard (if inserted) would also pass a 1 in Bit #5 of the CCI ...
> 
> So a CableCard host (with or w/o a CableCard inserted) would respond to the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor as the manufacturer saw fit (or as FCC regulations or industry agreements dictated). A CableCard host with a CableCard installed would also have to potentially respond to Bit #5 of the CCI = 1 ...


Sorry ... strike all the above ... I think that's incorrect ...

The CCI Redistribution Control Trigger (RCT) "may not be set to restrict redistribution except in content that could lawfully be marked Copy One Generation but is instead marked Copy Freely"

So ... with or without a CableCard installed manufacturers would respond to the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor (Broadcast Flag) as they saw fit (or required to by other things).

The CCI Redistribution Control Trigger (RCT) would sorta be like the 'Broadcast Flag' ... but for cable channels (and responding to it would be enforced by CableLabs the licensing agreements). That would allow (for example) Discovery or CNN or MTV to be marked 'Copy Freely' while still (in theory) preventing them from being uploaded to Bittorrent and the like ...


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

MichaelK said:


> intersting so sounds as if DCAS perhaps envisions a tweak to the head end software if the broadcast flag regs got reinstituted that the headend would pick up the broadcast version and push a CCI value for it.


Sorry ... see my note above ... a little more careful reading of the DCAS agreement ...


MichaelK said:


> It would be real interesting if anyone did start sending the flag over ATSC if anyone would respect it (or even notice- LOL)


Like I said, the biggest possibility for 'noticing' that I see is people with a non-HDCP compliant (or 'flakey' HDCP compliance) device hooked up via DVI or HDMI ...

I'd expect a possible 'viewing not permitted' for flagged content.


MichaelK said:


> I'm thinking S3 MRV/TTG will be the test device once tivo turns them on....


Yes, that's got some possibilities as well.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

dt_dc said:


> ... ...
> 
> The CCI Redistribution Control Trigger (RCT) "may not be set to restrict redistribution except in content that could lawfully be marked Copy One Generation but is instead marked Copy Freely"
> 
> ...


(dont mean to be dense- just worked out that way-LOL)

you lost me.

are you saying that flag would get set on content leaving the a dvr?


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

MichaelK said:


> (dont mean to be dense- just worked out that way-LOL)
> 
> you lost me.
> 
> are you saying that flag would get set on content leaving the a dvr?


I'm saing that the ATSC Redistribution Control Descriptor (ie, Broadcast Flag, ie RCD) would _technically_ have absolutely positively nothing to do with the CCI Redistribution Control Trigger (ie RCT) ...

Broadcasters may mark their content with the RCD ...

Manufacturers may (or may not) respond to it ... their call ... or subject to future FCC regs / industry agreements ... whatever ...

HOWEVER, the RCT in the CCI would NOT be set for broadcast channel using the RCD. It would ONLY be set for (certain) cable-only channels. Response to it would be mandated by the DFAST license agreement. The response is basically the same as was originally outlined by the 'Broadcast Flag' ... but for cable channels (not broadcast channels).

Clear as mud?


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## dt_dc (Jul 31, 2003)

MichaelK said:


> (dont mean to be dense- just worked out that way-LOL)
> 
> you lost me.
> 
> are you saying that flag would get set on content leaving the a dvr?


Oh, sorry ... perhaps you're asking about the response to the flag ...

Like I said above, the 'broadcast flag' is not a "copy once / copy never / copy freely" kind of thing.

Its effect is ONLY on output ...

Basically, digital output must be 'protected'. So, content marked with the flag can not just be sent via plane-Jane unencrypted DVI. It must have HDCP protection applied. Content marked with the flag can not just be sent via plane-Jane unencrypted Firewire. It must have DTCP protection applied. Content marked with the flag can not just be sent via some plane-Jane Ethernet connection. It must have some sort of encryption applied that then prevents the reciever from future public internet redistribution ...

Dunno if you're familiar with the term "Encryption plus non-assertion" but ... that's the basic effect of these flags ...


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

MichaelK said:


> so it's possible this 'email' went out in the past month, but if not it's a hoax.
> 
> When we talked my cable company engineer was well aware of CBS's role in preaching for the broadcast flag earlier. That was specifically why he wanted to call and ask them if they were doing it.
> 
> (that and the email just doesn't look like it was reviewed by the lawyers in the way it was written as one might expect with something like that)


It's an official email, we got it here as well. (I work at the Salt Lake CBS affiliate)
There's a link to an official survey on an official CBS webpage that's only viewable over the CBS internal network.

It addresses HD Closed Captions, 5.1 Metadata switching along with the Broadcast Flag

phox


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

dt_dc said:


> Oh, sorry ... perhaps you're asking about the response to the flag ...
> 
> Like I said above, the 'broadcast flag' is not a "copy once / copy never / copy freely" kind of thing.
> 
> ...


that's the answer I was looking for- thanks.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

phox_mulder said:


> It's an official email, we got it here as well. (I work at the Salt Lake CBS affiliate)
> There's a link to an official survey on an official CBS webpage that's only viewable over the CBS internal network.
> 
> It addresses HD Closed Captions, 5.1 Metadata switching along with the Broadcast Flag
> ...


interesting- when did they send it?


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

MichaelK said:


> interesting- when did they send it?


I didn't keep the original after they sent the reminder,
it was sent last Tuesday, 11-14.

Pretty sure the original was just a week prior, so around 11-8

phox


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