A Petition to Secure Our Right to Choose

By signing this petition you will be adding your voice to the growing movement of Australian digital TV viewers who want the requirement to provide electronic guide information, regardless of form, to be incorporated into the Free To Air (FTA) TV broadcasters’ licences. Doing this will ensure that no manipulation, side-stepping, or legal games will allow the FTA broadcasters to control guide information and hence restrict or manipulate our right to choose whichever digital TV equipment we so desire.

This petition will be circulated to all parties who have the ability to change, or influence change to the way FTA broadcasters deliver guide information during our move towards digital TV.

As members of the Australian public, and the rightful and legal owners of the Australian broadcasting spectrum, we the undersigned assert that the current voluntary code of conduct for data provision has failed and needs to be regulated as part of the licence conditions to ensure equity and fairness for all.

We hereby petition the Government of Australia and/or its legally constituted licensing authorities to amend the television licensing provisions as follows:

1. Ensure that the public of Australia is protected from any attempt by persons or corporations to control or manipulate the usability or functionality of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) or similar devices by restrictive practices affecting the use and availability of electronic programming data.
2. Ensure that any and all persons enjoy affordable and unrestricted use of accurate and reliable program data for a minimum of 7 days in advance for use in the device of their choice without fear of prosecution, persecution or disadvantage.

In recognition of the above, we ask you to sign this petition.

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Most recent 200 of 1759 signatories

Gavin Jones
Dale Borthwick

makintosher, "? ????? ????? ???? ???? )))."

Dylan Weaver

Greg Bowering, "The simple solution that would benefit the PUBLIC is to mandate an appropriate EPG standard that conforms with international standards. Anything else is pandering to the "australian" media cartel"

bettina allen
Michael Stoddart

Terry Burns, "EPG would probably work if TV station ran on time, one way to achieve this would be to stop the double up of the same commercial in the same add Break which would reduce the add break time (Don't substitute it with another) "

Gary Fielke
Michael Bailey

Simon Foxe, "Its amazing how we can be seen as innovators in so many fields, and yet in some areas of technology we are so backwards. We have no R+ rating for games, EPG data is not free, internet usage is metered. Its pathetic."

Kelvin Pine

ali thompson, "ditto to most all who have come b4 me. really its just business as usual: i love this country and (most of) our culture, but it drives me crazy that we have such a laissez-faire approach (including internet censorship)."

Christophe Knowling, "I lead a busy life and need an accurate EPG to readily tell what is being broadcast. I do not purchase newspapers to have access to printed guide information."

Mick McKean, "Being able to record and watch later should be a freely-available right, not an illegal act. Wake up and join the 21st century commercial TV stations."

Brad Keevers, "This is a disgusting abuse of our right to access public information"

Jon Grant, "Good to see Australia advancing backwards - and yes the government should step in to resolve this issue."

James Miles, "It's about time the Australian government stepped in and resolved this issue!"

Trevor Miller, "I hope the "powers that be" can understand how important a fully functioning "Free" EPG is to the full take up of Digital TV."

Henry Smith, "If free to air wan't us to watch their broadcasts then we need a free tv guide - without it I watch Foxtel"

Dave Coe
Brendan White
Jame Galvin

Vincent McIntyre, "Frankly it's ridiculous there is no properly maintained 7-day guide in Australia. It's long past time these monopolistic practices were curbed. I hope Greedview fail miserably."

Ben Cooper, "What the broadcasters are doing is wrong. EPG for all."

Ralph Lett, "Commercial gain or the public good ... let sanity prevail and give us a free, reliable and up to date EPG."

Michael Hii
Imad Eter

Arthur Karageorgos, "I think that restricting the EPG is bad business. They can air good programs at night and people can watch them the next day. They can make more money from their night time advertising this way. I hope that they stop showing those awful text message ads."

pertos, "Time for Australia to move out of the technological backwaters!"

Jan Roos, "I support this worthy cause wholeheartedly and believe that the FTA broadcasters’ attempts to monopolise this feature for their own gain is criminal in itself."

T.J.Allison, "They wont last long. The NBN will curb their nasty ways"

Lisa Cahill
Paul Cahill
Andrew Sinclair
Rahul Bhattacharya
Wayne Richmond
Kym Harper
Alex Glissan

Andrew Ternes, "I'm sick and tired of 7, 9 & 10 screwing with TV series, moving timeslots, playing a series out of order, idiotic reality shows running over time and editing shows to fit more ads in. thank god for aunty and SBS."

Andrew Patman

John Haywood, "'Free To Air', but well-nigh impossible to schedule? This makes no sense at all"

Caleb McDonald

d king, "Keep it free."

Josh Bennie
Matt Ziebarth

John Hall, "Only watch ABC and SBS. So think on that one...."

Angus Colquhoun

rachid, "aztat wate topartisipet with you if it is ok"

Thomas Haupt

C N French, "the lack of a free to air usable TV Electronic Program Guide in this country is a national disgrace...forgot about voluntary codes...Aussie TV stations are feral."

Gavin Hagan, "Get with the times, and make it free"

George Antoniades
Chris Byrne
Terry I. Wilson
Adrian Smith
Jeff James
Peter Wibberley
Glenn Dawson

N. Ellery, "If Aussie FTA stations wish to compete with streaming video / internet for my eyeballs, they'll have to step up their game... good EPG data is a cheap, easy way to improve the quality of your service."

Daniel S, "It seems common overseas for EPG information to be made public. It would be a backward move for Australia to restrict access to such information."

rob lowe, "this is bullsh**, get over it guys. we have been able to record tv for years. do you want us to watch your station? or boycot it?"

peter allen

Lena Ladhams, "Accurate and Free EPG data is vital for the FTA industry, it is pointless to restrict access to only one kind of hardware. There should be freedom of choice."

Kim Screaigh, "Almost every other country has Full EPG available..about time the viewers were looked after instead of denying them something that should be available..AND FREE!!!"

Allan Samuels

andrew, "Make it free!"

Nicholas Connan
Nathan Walters

Jonathan Dowthwaite, "Being prevented from doing/having something the rest of the world has been doing/has had for years. Sound familiar?"

Dean Colvin
Erik Schartner

Paul Valente, "It only takes a good man to do nothing for evil to flourish. Let's stop the rot NOW!"

David Radford

Ron Almeida, "Channel 7 cannot get its TV channel program info to display properly or at all. At least the other channels show the next 2 programs to air."

angel mishas
Jan Heinrich
Greg Powell
Paul Alexander
Graeme Pigram
Steve Scanlan
Dallas Eastley
Richard Gregg
Kane Li

Anonumus, "Well at least 7 and 10 are somewhat in the act, to think about it 9 has the crappiest shows with the same plots and dumbass ways to keep people from missing advirtisments in their tv guides, 9 stick it up ur big fat ass if it fits."

Simon Coyle
Inderjeet Singh
David Pitts

Anthony Hogan, "The standards include how the EPG should be delivered. The TV networks are suffering declining viewer numbers. DON'T PUSH YOUR VIEWERS AWAY!"

Matthew Quinn, "yahoo7, ninemsn, 10 HD .... show some real progress and support the meta data push !"

Phil Gibbs
chris robertson

Stephen O\'Hair, "I'm fuckin disgusted that in a country like Australia there is no Free EPG!"

Luke Mitchell-Collins

Grant Thompson, "We need freedom and not to be controlled by commercial interests."

Ashley Ruehland, "epg accuracy sux, programs moving constantly, running over time, or not on at all"

Chris Bennetts
Matthew Menhwnnitt

Nick Kattas, "Do these idiots realise we just won't watch WIN like we are missing MANY shows now, but if we don't know about them we wont watch their station. lost advertising dollars!!"

Peter Deuchar, "A mandatory switch to digital for all in the very near future, with a restricted FTA EPG that limits PVR purchase choices to please advertisers? That is ludicrous."

Kellie-Anne Barker

Tyron Barker, "If we aren't given accurate EPG so we can record what we want when we want(The whole reason for having PVR or even VCR's) then there will be more downloading of TV shows over the internet so we have more freedom."

Jason Bohl
patrick dupont

Nathan Doab, "It would seem to be a simple idea, yet as usual our regulations refuse to not only keep up with technology but also with the rest of the world."

Andrew McLaren, "An EPG is simply an order of play, not an artistic endevour. Australian TV stations produce so little original content, I guess this is the way to justify the retainer paid to copyright lawyers."

Evan Miller
Maz Alf
Michael Niall
Joshua Samuel
Vishal Chandani
Barry Englefield

steve helme, "It is potty that the rest of the World just laughs at us fools trying to work around what they take for granted - the Law is an ASS."

David Boccabella, "Why is it that Australia is so backward in area's like these. In many ways it is a shameful situation where normal Australians cannot enjoy new technologies"

Jenny Dale

G Brennan, "Australian needs to come into the 21st century. Why should we be disadvantaged because of petty vested interests"

Paul Gabbert

Ross Gerring, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change."

Adrian Barnes
John Oddie
David Kearney
Vanessa Bradford
Nick Bradford
robert tansley
Brett Matthes
Aaron Martin

Clint Langdon, "Free EPG data should be freely available in a standardised format to anyone who wishes to use it. Little wonder there is such a move away from free to air crap in Aust. to digital computer based content such as You Tube."

Bane Mcleod
Barbara Oddie
Stuart Fraser
Brad Young

Bernd Lotz, "Let's get Australia out of the dark ages - do we have to lag the world in everything except sporting gold medals?"

isaac davis

David Willing, "Can't this Labour Govt do something for the FTA guides to help the working family. I trust they are still as concerned now they are in power."

Alf Zappala, "Also I would like to see TV station be forced to keep to advertised times"

mike smith, "one just has to look at UK Freeview & FreeSAT to see just how bad things are here."

John Brown, "Freedom to choose whenever whatever"

Brendan Pennell
Leon Cornwell

Gav Weston, "bring it on...."

Chris Richards, "Once again australia is years behind the rest of the first world with stupid regulations preventing implementation of technology taken for granted in the UK, or the US, let alone parts of Asia."

geoff calvert

Brendan White, "More and more Digital Television devices use EPG for functions. We should not be dictated to as to which devices we can use these functions on"

kris TREAGUS, "if free-to-air television is to remain relevant, and free -- we need to ensure the technology remains 'open' to all users."

Darren Blackley
Aidan O\'Brien
Paul Roberts
Leith Pearman
David Martin
David Haynes
Tim

Adam Wade, "After reading some of the stupid things some TV stations in other countries do, I never thought that an Australian TV network would do something equally as stupid. Free to air EPGs MUST STAY FREE FOR ALL."

Paul Blackmore

Nick Dalton, "I think it is un-australian, Its a classic case of rich get richer and poor get poorer , Eddie do your research this is getting old, Just let us have our EPG"

Jason
Chris McEvoy
Guy Molloy
Allan Scott
David Raven
Warren Angel
Guy Russell
Louie Haviaridis
Eliot Grace
G Scotney

Arthur McAlister, "Accurate and unrestricted publication of this information should be a condition of licence renewal"

Phil Bookallil
david wilson

Andrew Thompson, "Something that I haven't seen mentioned is the usage of EPGs to indicate that a desired program is about to start. This cannot contravene any copyright laws, can it?"

Leia

robert lymn, "if 7 and 10 are capable of working with epg provider(s) to allow people with pvr's to view station content guides, y cant 9? is eddie "i want another million' mcguire still in charge of 9?"

Luke Coppens
Bernard O\'Hara
Aristide Asprogerakas
Colin Coney
Chris Kohler
Keith
Don MacLeod

Kevin Hunt, "If other industries tried to get away with the misleading /incorrect information that the current EPG's I expect that they would end up on a current affair program on a week night - with comments about lack of quality.. poor customer service etc.."

Paul, "It shouldn't be illegal to do something the rest of the world can do or something that has been done fore years reading the paper. Rediculous"

James

Timothy Gasper, "Australians deserve a free EPG for Free-to-air Digital Television. Other countries have it, so why not us?"

Stavros Patiniotis

Stefan, "make it free for all australians"

Peter Minella

Peter Burge, "Please get up free to air EPG."

Darren Brenton

Mal McNelley, "I fully support the initaives of the "myepg" website and the need to establish an epg system the equal of that provided in other countries with free-to-air broadcast digital TV."

Anton Proppe

Greg Young, "Consumer getting screwed again by the big companies!!!!!"

grant colvin
jamie burgess

Don Grover, "Give us FTA EPG information!"

Linda Middleton
Darren Crockett

Andrew Wilkinson, "Australian FTA Digital TV is in an appalling state at the moment. Free EPG is a start at least."

Haisam Zogheib, "Making epg's illegal will just make us folks go for the illegal avenue of downloading our tv shows thus makiing the average hard working aussie a ciminal."

Martin Eltoft

k morirs, "PLEASE!"

Stuart Burns
John Miezitis