CE Makers Sign OpenCable Agreement
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 1/7/2002 1:00:00 PM
Pace Micro Technologies PLC added its name to a short list of consumer-electronics manufacturers to sign the CableLabs Point of Deployment-Host Interface License Agreement (PHILA).
In a Federal Communications Commission filing, CableLabs announced Pace on Dec. 22 joined Motorola Broadband Communications Sector and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. on that list. Motorola and S-A signed the agreement earlier in the year.
Companies signing the license agreement gain access to proprietary designs needed to manufacture OpenCable set tops. The agreement includes key clauses regarding copy protection between the OpenCable POD card and the OpenCable set-top box.
'Having three large consumer electronics manufacturers show their interest in making OpenCable boxes by signing the PHILA validates the cable industry's commitment to this advanced digital service provisioning platform,' Cable Television Laboratories Inc. CEO Richard Green said in a release.
The cable and consumer electronics industry have clashed over recording rights related to these next-generation digital devices. While Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro called last week's release of the first OpenCable middleware standard a step forward, in a statement he also called on the cable consortium to work toward an agreeable PHILA arrangement.
'Such a license, to exercise a right granted by law, can and must protect the security of cable systems without compromising consumer home recording and fair use rights, or eliminating or limiting the functionality of related consumer electronics products,' he said. 'We urge the Federal Communications Commission to publish the draft POD-Host Interface license for comment - as it did, in telephone deregulation, the license for a competitive consumer telephone interface - to help ensure that the final license meets this critical balance.'
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