This portion of the senior design course is intended to give you some experience with how computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering technology interacts with economics, societal issues, legal issues, and ethics.

Rarely do decisions about technology get made without balancing the pros and cons of the technology with other considerations. Companies consider not only the technology, but also the cost, potential profit, impact upon other products, and whether the approach is legal and/or ethical. Other institutions consider not only the potential benefit of the technology, but also the impact upon the economy and the impact upon society.

We will briefly delve into these issues using a case study related to digital rights management (DRM). DRM encompasses a broad set of technologies and other strategies to control access to digital works. See the wikipedia entry on DRM for an overview. You will likely be most familiar with DRM as it applies to music, e.g.. mp3 vs. aac vs. wma. Battles over the use of DRM for music have been very active this year.

In class, we will consider a subset of the DRM issues. We will examine a proposal to implement DRM for over-the-air broadcast digital television. This approach is called Broadcast Flag. See the wikipedia entry on Broacast Flag for a much too brief overview.

The Broadcast Flag was considered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has responsibility for creating regulations overseeing the telecommunications industry, within the bounds of federal law. In 2003, the FCC created a set of regulations, and in 2004 they accepted a set of technologies to implement these regulations. However, in 2005 the courts ruled that the FCC did not have the authority to create these regulations. Currently, Congress is considering whether to give the FCC the required authority.

Assignment to be completed before 10/26:

Expect to spend about 4 hours on this assignment before class.

In class on Friday 10/26, your group will be called upon to present an argument for or against the Broadcast Flag. To prepare for this task, I recommend the following reading.

• Read the Congressional Research Service's Copyright Protection of Digital Television: The Broadcast Video Flag to get an introduction to the Broadcast Flag and the issues surrounding it. This report was prepared for members of Congress to learn about the issue.

The following three items were written by the FCC. There is far more detail here than you'll be able to digest, and it uses a lot of jargon. The goal is to get enough of an understanding to create your pro or con argument. I don't expect you to read all of each report.

• Read parts of the FCC's 2002 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, in which they explain why they are considering the Broadcast Flag and ask for public comment. Read sections I, II, and III, which suggest many good questions about the technology, economics, societal issues, and legal issues.

• Read parts of the FCC's 2003 Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, in which they mandate the Broadcast Flag, and ask for public comment on how it should be implemented. Read sections I and II to learn about their rationale for mandating the Broadcast Flag. Read sections III amd V to learn about the technology alternatives, and arguments from lobbyists for and against them. Section V is probably going to be difficult to understand; you may prefer to read portions of Appendix B (in particular 73.9001-73.9004) which contains the actual regulations. You might find some arguments you can use in pp. 65-72, where the FCC Commissioners argue about the issues. Don't worry about all of the other sections of the report. The goal is to understand the tradeoffs.

• Read parts of the FCC's 2004 Order, in which they approve particular technologies to implement the Broadcast Flag. Read section II to learn about what the approved technologies will allow and what they will not allow. Don't worry about all of the details; instead, try to get a sense of what you can do and what you can't do with the approved equipment.

You are welcome to split up the reading among members of your group.

Each group must signup for the argument they will make. The signup consists of the combination of exactly one Position and one Basis.

The positions are:

Pro - Argue for the Broadcast Flag.

Con - Argue against the Broadcast Flag.

The bases are:

Technical - Argue on the basis of the technical approach.

Economic - Argue on the basis of the economic impact.

Societal - Argue on the basis of whether this is good for society.

Legal - Argue on the basis of whether this is legal, or whether it should be legal.

Ethical - Argue on the basis of whether the action is ethical.

For instance, if your group selects to argue Pro & Economic, you must construct an argument supporting the Broadcast Flag and the argument must be based on the economic impact.

I recommend reserving 2 hours for the reading, 1 hour to form your argument, and 1 hour to combine your individual arguments into a group position.

To signup, please go here. Each student must signup before 10/26 10am in order to receive credit for this assignment.

During class on 10/26:

Each group will be called upon during class on 10/26 to present your argument. Your group will be expected to use exactly 60 seconds to present your argument. You may elect one or more members of your group to speak. Be ready, as this will proceed quickly in order to have time for each group to present.

Quiz to be completed between 10/26 and 11/2:

A quiz will be posted through eee.uci.edu.