FCC regulator tuned into recording issues

Monday, Jan. 13, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.

Like many consumers passionate about their entertainment, Michael Powell loves his TiVo.

"It's God's machine," the Federal Communications Commission chairman said of the digital recording device at a question-and-answer session at last week's International Consumer Electronics Show.

Powell, comfortably conversing with Consumer Electronics Association Chief Executive Officer Gary Shapiro at the Las Vegas Hilton, was talking about what gadgets he had just received for Christmas.

His favorite new toy is TiVo, a device that can record television shows to a hard drive to be played later. One of the features of the device is that it can, in effect, edit out commercials.

Powell said he loved the TiVo and would even consider using the device to send programs to his sister if she happened to miss a crucial episode of a series she was following. The social interaction between people is part of what makes entertainment thrive and viewers enjoy sharing their opinions and viewpoints of something they've just witnessed.

But Powell's remark about sharing programming with his sister is the crux of an issue that has the entertainment and consumer electronics industries clawing at each other.

While Hollywood wants to limit the content the owners of personal video recorders want to share with each other, the CEA -- the organization that produces the popular CES show that brings more than 100,000 people a year to Las Vegas -- lobbies against government-imposed restrictions on recording technology.

The entertainment industry has pondered for years how to battle against technology that has been lovingly embraced by the public. Even lawsuits have backfired.

Several motion picture studios and television networks filed suit in 2001 against SonicBlue, a company that manufactures ReplayTV, a product similar to TiVo. ReplayTV has a feature that Hollywood says could be even more devastating -- a file-sharing feature that allows people to share their recordings with 15 others who also have the ReplayTV system in their homes.

Entertainment executives fear that a ReplayTV owner would capture a premium feature like an HBO movie with the device and share it with 15 others who would get it for free.

SonicBlue continues to manufacture and sell its ReplayTVs, using a risky strategy used by its predecessor company, Diamond Multimedia, San Jose, Calif. Diamond began selling a portable MP3 music player in 1998 and was faced with similar entertainment industry lawsuits.

When Diamond was taken to court, big-name competitors with similar devices backed off, leaving the market wide open for the small company. The battle generated massive publicity for the company and virtually cornered the MP3 market. SonicBlue is hoping for similar results.

Shapiro told Powell that he might have the authority to do something about the digital recording issue some day.

For now, consumer electronics manufacturers are just happy that the top FCC regulator loves his TiVo.