Philip Merrill

Active Contributor, Pasadena, California

2004/02/16

1.

Name of TRU

TRU to access content of one's choice

2.

Summary description of TRU

traditionally users have enjoyed the possibility to access any type of content that was available (books, cassettes, broadcast transmissions)

3.

Use records of TRU

FCC Chairman Powell on Feb 8 said, "consumers should have access to their choice of legal content. Consumers have come to expect to be able to go where they want on high-speed connections, and those who have migrated from dial-up would presumably object to paying a premium for broadband if certain content were blocked. Thus, I challenge all facets of the industry to commit to allowing consumers to reach the content of their choice. I recognize that network operators have a legitimate need to manage their networks and ensure a quality experience, thus reasonable limits sometimes must be placed in service contracts. Such restraints, however, should be clearly spelled out and should be as minimal as necessary."

4.

Nature of TRU

5.

Benefits of TRU

Recommended for consumers to demand from their choice of broadband service provider

6.

Possible digital support

This can be enabled in a variety of ways ranging from activist to locked-down. Basically title information can be made freely available over the Internet with creative commons guidelines for reuse, or else all title database data could be served from a server in Switzerland. Or both in some combination. Additionally, proprietary uses of such a database could thrive in particular if the primary database data itself was treated in a Creative Commons manner. This at least suggests a moral rights service that addresses the French inalienable moral rights and provides that information in some universally available format, for example suitable for XML-based data feeds.

7.

Requirements

8.

References