CableCARD-ready TV products are ‘indispensable’ to a successful c...

problems with CableCARDs “resulting in improper operation or failed operation,” they said. “These include persistent problems with CableCARDs or their headend support, erroneous software or firmware fixes, inability of authorized subscribers to acquire some channels that offer encrypted content and erroneous and overly restrictive copy protection outcomes.” They urged the Commission to resist cable industry pressure to eliminate or extend the established July 1, 2006, date by which cable operators no longer will be permitted to sell or lease integrated cable set-tops “and therefore must rely on the same security solution made available to competitive entrants.” Keeping the July 1, 2006, deadline “is absolutely essential” to ensuring that the CableCARD problems that have emerged in the field “would be rectified and would not multiply,” Thomson and Mitsubishi said. “The necessary level of commercial and user confidence in CableCARD-reliant products depends on the cable industry having the same level of commitment to such products as consumer electronics manufacturers. Absent a requirement that the cable industry also rely on CableCARDs for system security, there is simply insufficient incentive to ensure a robust market for integrated digital cable-ready television products as envisioned” when the Commission adopted its plug-&-play rules, they said. David Arland, Thomson vp- communications, who participated in the meetings, told us “our point in going in was not to say, ‘Oh my God, it’s a disaster.’ Our point in going in was to say there are these issues, A, you need to be aware of it, B, we're managing it, but C, it would be great if cable had the same interest in solving them on their own boxes as we have on our own products.” The filing was meant to convey the point “let’s play by the same rule, which by the way, is the federal rule today.”