From: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 13:57:52 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: V-chip?
In-Reply-To: <199601252305.RAA03150@grendel.texas.net>
Message-ID: <199601260208.SAA02439@netcom4.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Sten Drescher <stend@grendel.texas.net> writes:

 > Yes, it is censorship.  At least, it is if you aren't
 > watching every program on every channel available to you
 > right now, because your channel selection allows you to
 > censor public/cable TV at will right now, without the
 > V-Chip.  What the V-Chip does is allow you to censor what is
 > shown on your television, even in your absence.

Right.  Freedom of TV viewing belongs to those who own one, even
if they are not always there to supervise the use of the set.
Exactly like freedom of the press.

I personally plan to instruct my TV to display only material
which does not offend my neo-Pagan, Bohemian, and Hedonistic
beliefs.

 > I'll concede that there are positive aspects to this for
 > parents, but I resent the 'you must install it in all TVs'
 > part. If enough people want it, they can get TVs with it.

The last great adventure in forcing manufacturers to put
something in a television set was the "UHF must tune as easily as
VHF" boondoggle.  The number of UHF stations in most areas was
0-1. Note that when cable provided a plethora of channels in a
previously untunable part of the spectrum, market forces
instantly resulted in the creation of "cable-ready" sets in
advance of government prodding.

 > The content information is transmitted as part of the
 > program, in the between-frame band which is normally not in
 > the displayed area of the picture, not on a separate signal.

There is currently no official standard for encoding content
information for television programs.  Manufacturers of various
flavors of "parental control devices" have at times demonstrated
their technology as the "V-Chip" on Network Nightly News
programs. This includes devices which can do selective
pixelation, as well as those which merely render the set
inoperative during programs having a specific rating.

The bandwidth required to transmit content information second by
second is very small. It is not a foregone conclusion that such
information will be carried exclusively via the video blanking
intervals, or that it will be available from only a single
source. Indeed, with the movement towards digital encoding of
television, it is doubtful that blanking intervals themselves
will be around much longer.

 > The other reason for not having a select-your-rater method
 > is, first, the sheer volume of TV broadcasting.  No service
 > could possibly rate all TV content.  Second, no service
 > could rate _live_ TV, such as the nightly news, or post-game
 > NFL locker room films.

No one is suggesting that all raters will rate all programming.
Movies will probably be the first things raters will provide
content tracks for.  Next will be widely carried programs in
syndicated reruns, and top rated first run shows.

Eventually, use of the technology will proliferate, much as the
use of closed-captioning has.

Much money will be saved in not having to physically edit media,
and in having the intelligence at the displaying end. One will no
longer have to have a theatrical release of a movie, a television
version, a version for European airlines, a version for American
airlines, a version for Islamic airlines, etc ad nauseum.  Porn
will no longer have to be edited into Hard-X, Soft-X, and R
versions before being distributed.

 > Incorrect.  The 'V-Chip' exists (at least according to a
 > demonstration on NBC News ("Home of the Exploding Chevy")
 > the other night), there just isn't sufficient consumer
 > demand for it to have hit the market yet.  And, from
 > appearances, it doesn't pixelate the picture, it blocks the
 > signal entirely.

Please see prior comments about Nightly News demonstrations of
alleged V-Chip technology.

Once a standard for encoding content information is established,
it is unlikely that there will be some universal specific
"V-Chip" that will be used by all manufacturers.  Instead, the
functionality will likely be implemented in whatever software
controls the display appliance.  It's not a complicated
application, and hardly worth a processor of its own.

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $