On Monday night it appears that users trying to record NBC TV shows using Microsoft Vista’s Media Center were unable to, the reason being that NBC sent off a broadcast flag that in turn activated Media Center’s built in DRM copy protection measures, and stopped recordings of over-the-air and cable broadcasts.
Both NBC and Microsoft stated that they have no explanation for the issue and noted that DirecTV and TiVo DVR users did not report any issues.
The two TV shows in question were the new “American Gladiator” and “Medium” episodes. Users received the following message when trying to record the shows. “Recording cancelled. [TV show] cannot be recorded. Restrictions set by the broadcaster and/or originator of the content prohibit recording of this program.”
All that seems to come out of this situation is the proof that Vista’s Media Center does indeed have built in DRM that can be triggered by broadcasters at any point, restricting the recording of content at will.
Result for: broadcast flag
Yesterday we reported that NBC had sent off broadcast flags thus causing Vista Media Center users to not be able to record TV episodes of “American Gladiators” and “Medium” on Monday night.
After these reports surfaced around the internet, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that the same exact thing was happening to over-the-air (OTA) programming, something it had not seen before.
One individual report shows a man attempting to record TV shows from NBC’s Raleigh affiliate, WNCN HD, and having an alert tell him “the broadcaster has disabled recording of the programming.” The man was recording from an antenna signal and EFF confided that it was the first it had ever heard of OTA programming being restricted.
Broadcast flags, which come part of the upcoming 2009 DTV standard, were challenged in court two years ago by the EFF and the court ruled in favor saying “that using the flags to restrict copying was not appropriate”. The law was subsequently thrown out. The panel of judges said the FCC did not have the authority to enforce a law of that nature, which is a clear violation of fair use laws.
The EFF then added that Microsoft was voluntarily adopting broadcast flags into its software, as other similar programs now ignore them and have no trouble recording programming even if it is flagged.
“If it is a deliberate ‘feature,’ they have some explaining to do,” EFF international outreach coordinator Danny O’Brien said. “That would amount to putting the desires of content holders above the best interests of its customers.”
Result for: broadcast flag
This week it was reported that NBC was sending out broadcast flags with its Monday night programming thus blocking Vista Media Center users from recording the programming. At the time both Microsoft and the broadcaster argued they did not know what had cause the interference but were investigating.
The incidents caused uproar on the internet especially considering that broadcast flag laws were thrown out and therefore no software needs to abide by them, even if they are sent out by the broadcaster. NBC has made a new statement today, saying the interference were purely a mistake.
“We made an inadvertent mistake,” an NBC spokeswoman explained, “We’re not aware of any other complaints, and we believe we have addressed the problem.”
Because DRM flagging is no longer mandatory, it seems that Microsoft is voluntarily having its Vista Media Center restrict recording. It could also be a monetary deal with the TV broadcasters. Microsoft has said however that it is “working with media outlets to cut down on the number of false DRM flags.”
