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To: BillyG who wrote (30757)	3/11/1998 11:56:00 AM
From: Don Dorsey	Respond to of 50808

NEW CEMA STANDARD HELPS TV SETS RELATE DIGITAL AND ANALOG SIGNALS ARLINGTON, VA, March 10, 1998 - The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA) published EIA-752 that will aid consumers in understanding and using the new high definition television (HDTV) channels. With the new standard, consumers¡ digital TV receivers can group networks¡ digital TV channels more easily with their existing analog programming. By comparing a MPEG transport stream identifier contained in the digital broadcast signal with a new NTSC transmission signal identifier carried on line 21 of the vertical blanking interval, a digital TV receiver can determine that the digital signal and the NTSC signal are coming from the same broadcaster. The standard explains to broadcasters how to carry this unique 16-bit transmission signal identifier in a new extended data service (XDS) packet. As part of the assignment of digital TV channels by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it is expected that the FCC will assign the unique 16-bit MPEG transport stream identifier to each digital TV station. It has been recommended that only odd numbers be assigned. This numbering system then will allow digital broadcasters that also have NTSC stations to use the related even numbers for transmission signal identifiers that they transmit on their analog NTSC stations in accordance with EIA-752. For $29, manufacturers, broadcasters and other interested parties can order EIA-752 by calling Global Engineering Documents, tel: 800-854-7179 or by turning to their web site at www.global.ihs.com. Links to Global¡s site are provided on CEMA¡s web site, www.cemacity.org. CEMA is a sector of the Electronic Industries Association (EIA), the 74-year-old Arlington, Virginia-based trade association representing all facets of electronics manufacturing. CEMA represents U.S. manufacturers of audio, video, accessories, mobile electronics, communication, information and multimedia products which are sold through consumer channels.

To: BillyG who wrote (30757)	3/11/1998 12:01:00 PM
From: Don Dorsey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

A political battle in the works? CONGRESSIONAL SUBCOMMITTEE DECLARES WAR ON VCRs AND PCs WASHINGTON, February 26, 1998 -- The Home Recording Rights Coalition today sounded an alert to consumers and all other users of home VCRs and personal computers. A subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, in passing legislation to implement copyright treaties, rejected an amendment that would have preserved consumers' rights to buy and use digital VCRs and PCs capable of making home recordings. The bill, H.R. 2281, a Clinton Administration measure to implement treaties negotiated at the World Intellectual Property Organization, contains restrictions on new devices that might be used for home recording. The amendment rejected today, offered by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), would have clarified that the restrictions on sale and use of devices do not apply to consumer VCRs and PCs. Today HRRC Chairman Gary Shapiro said: "In rejecting the Boucher amendment, the backers of H.R. 2281 made crystal clear what HRRC has been warning from the moment this bill was introduced: it is intended to deny consumers new generations of VCRs and PCs that are capable of home recording. HRRC is calling on all consumers, retailers, and others interested in private, noncommercial home recording to contact members of the full House Judiciary Committee, so that they reject this appalling legislation." Rep. Boucher, along with Rep. Tom Campbell (R-CA), is the author of an alternative measure to implement the WIPO treaties, H.R. 3048. This bill, which has broad, bipartisan support, would address actual conduct that infringes copyright, without imposing any prior restraints on lawful, general purpose consumer devices. By contrast, Shapiro pointed out, the bill passed in subcommittee today would impose restraints on the design, sale and marketing of devices capable of "circumventing" any "technological protection measure" added to a signal to prevent consumer home recording -- even the sort of "fair use" that was protected by the Supreme Court in the 1984 "Betamax" case. Shapiro pointed out that HRRC is not the only organization fighting prior technical restraints on VCRs and PCs. Groups of educators, librarians, archivists, computer manufacturers, and those interested in distance learning also strongly oppose restraints on devices that can be used for home recording. Today Shapiro called for an all-out campaign by consumers to ask the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), and all members of that committee to reject H.R. 2281, or to accept the Boucher amendment. He also called on consumers to ask their own Members of Congress to become cosponsors of the bipartisan Boucher-Campbell alternative, H.R. 3048. The Home Recording Rights Coalition, founded in 1981, is a group of consumers, retailers, electronics servicers, and others interested in preserving the rights of consumers to obtain and use new consumer electronics devices, free of unreasonable government restraints or private taxes. ÿ Those interested in further information should contact the HRRC website (www.hrrc.org) and that of the Digital Future Coalition (www.dfc.org), of which the HRRC is a member.