DC Public Interest Community Urges FCC to Not Allow Selectable Output Control Restrictions

Washington, D.C. -- Yesterday, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative joined twelve public interest organizations in solidarity calling for the Federal Community Commission (FCC) to maintain its commitment to data driven policy and reject the "whims of industry" to allow the motion picture lobby to control how consumers are able to use televisions and set-top boxes.

In a letter to the FCC, the group challenges a decision the Commissions' Media Bureau appears poised to make: grating a waiver requested by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that would allow for "selectable output control." Selectable output control would restrict the types of devices consumers can plug into their televisions rendering most existing devices and televisions non-compatible.  This would force consumers to purchase new televisions and devices, which could total as many as twenty million.

The MPAA claims that selectable output control is needed in order to offer movies to consumers through on-demand video before the DVD release. However, not only have some studios already begun this method of early release, the MPAA has offered no data to support its need for selectable output control.

Over the past year, "the MPAA has failed to provide a reason as to why the limited interests of its six member movie studios should be allowed to outweigh the interests of those consumers that will be forced to replace over 20 million television sets and countless other devices in order to view content that their current equipment is capable of displaying," the groups told the Commission.

The group continues to pressure the FCC saying: "Despite a dearth of evidence justifying this petition, the Media Bureau appears poised to grant the waiver as a special favor to the MPAA, contrary to the public interest."

Click here for a downloadable PDF of the letter.

For media inquiries, contact Kate Brown at (202) 596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net

About the New America Foundation
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. 

Related Programs: Open Technology Initiative , Wireless Future Program
Topics: Telecom & Technology