ALERT: Tell the FCC to Say "No" to the Cable Kill Switch

The battle over your home entertainment equipment is heating up again and the time to make your voice heard is now. Hollywood wants the Federal Communications Commission to grant the studios permission to engage in so-called “Selectable Output Control,” or SOC for short. SOC is a technology mandate that would allow movie studios to shut off video outputs on the back of your cable box and DVR during the screening of certain movies over cable. Why is this bad? Because SOC could inhibit future innovation, obstruct interoperability, limit fair use and restrict consumer choice. Worst of all, it could force you to buy all new home entertainment gear in order to watch Hollywood films over cable. Want to learn more? Just watch these videos:

Who gets to decide which outputs you can use on your home entertainment gear—the movie studios or you? File a comment with the FCC and tell them to keep Hollywood’s technology mandates out of your living room.

Filing a comment is easy, just follow these steps:

1. Review the following suggested comments and make any changes you desire:

   Dear Chairman Genachowski, I urge you to deny the MPAA's request for a waiver that would allow studios to engage in "selectable output control," or "SOC". If granted, the SOC waiver would let Hollywood dictate which movies I can watch on my television and which outputs I can use on my cable box and DVR. Only I should be able to make these decisions and I hope that the FCC will stand up to Hollywood by denying its request. According to the MPAA, the studios need to use SOC so they can deliver certain video-on-demand movies earlier than they do today. However, if SOC were used, no consumer would be able to watch these early VoD movies without first buying new home video equipment. I can watch VoD movies on my television today--it's wrong for the federal government (on behalf of a few Hollywood studios) to force me to buy expensive new equipment just so I can watch movies a month earlier, especially considering the current state of the economy! I also understand that SOC would block new and innovative devices that rely on traditional, open outputs. I've come to expect more flexibility and features with my devices, not less and hope that SOC will not prevent the TiVos and Slingboxes of tomorrow from coming to market. The government is supposed to be protecting the public and encouraging innovation, not creating new regulations that limit or obsolete consumers' home entertainment equipment just because Hollywood says so. The FCC should not adopt MPAA's SOC proposal. It's a pointless Hollywood studio scheme that will only hurt consumers like me.

2. Once finished Select all the comment text by clicking IN the box and choosing "Select All" from your browser's "Edit" menu. Copy the selected text by choosing "Copy" from the your browser's "Edit" menu.

3. Once you've selected your comment text click on the following link, paste your comments into the comment section of the form from the FCC, fill in the remaining required fields, press Continue, and follow the instructions for reviewing your form.

   Click here to file your comments with the FCC

Click here to learn more about SOC.