Broadcast Flag appeal
p2pnet.net News:- If you’re in the US, you’d better pray a US Appeals Court listens to nine public interest organizations who are arguing that the Federal Communications Commission far exceeded its authority when it imposed the broadcast flag regime.
The outcome will determine precisely how much control the government and Hollywood is able to exert over current and future digital media devices.
If the court doesn’t listen, you’ll be well on the way to government-designed TV – and worse – says the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Wendy Seltzer.
The EFF filed the brief with Public Knowledge, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, American Association of Law Libraries, Medical Library Association, Special Libraries Association, Consumer Federation of America, and Consumers Union.
When the FCC’s broadcast flag mandate goes into effect next year, it’ll be illegal to sell devices able to tune in digital TV that don’t have ‘broadcast flag’ copy protection built into the signal.
The flag in effect tells the device how the programming may be used by devices other than the ones that directly receive the signal.
“This has the potential to severely limit the lawful distribution, use, and backup of digital programs,” says the EFF.
The brief argues the FCC has no authority to regulate digital TV sets and other digital devices unless specifically instructed to do so by Congress.
While the FCC does have jurisdiction over TV transmissions, transmissions aren’t the issue: broadcast flag limits the way digital material can be used after the broadcast has been received.
MPAA boss Jack Valenti once called broadcast flag, “access control or redistribution control”.
‘Consumer control” would have been more accurate.
“Bowing to a group of copyright holders led by the MPAA, the FCC promulgated a rule drafted by those corporate interests that will dictate design aspects of a vast array of consumer electronics – televisions, DVD recorders, TiVos, digital VCRs, iPods, and cell phones – for years to come,” the brief reads.
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See:-
broadcast flag regime – EFF, Public Interest Groups Challenge Legality of the Broadcast Flag
Wendy Seltzer – Beat Broadcast Flag, p2pnet, July 5, 2004
broadcast flag – Hollywood – vs – Its Customers, p2pnet, August 11, 2004
