p2pnet.net News:- The Federal Communications Commission [read entertainment industry] overstepped its authority by imposing a ‘rule’ designed to give Hollywood control of what people see on their digital television sets, and what they do with them.

According to the FCC’s Broadcast Flag law, you shouldn’t be able to put copies of digital tv shows online – or as Reuters states it, “The FCC has said copyright protections are needed to help speed the adoption of digital television.

“Under the FCC rule, programmers can attach a code, or flag, to digital broadcasts that would, in most cases, bar consumers from sending unauthorized copies of popular shows over the Web.”

But, “You crossed the line,” Judge Harry Edwards told an FCC lawyer during a three-judge US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit hearing.

” ‘Selling televisions is not what the FCC is in the business of,’ Edwards said, siding with critics who charge the rule dictates how computers and other devices should work,” says Reuters.

However, states the story, “it was unclear whether the judges would strike down the FCC’s 2003 rule, since doubts were also raised about whether the American Library Association and other opponents had legal standing to challenge the rule in court”.

July 1 was to the date by the FCC for all personal video recorder PVR technologies to become Broadcast Flag-compliant and “robust” against user modification, as the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) described it.

The EFF is one of the groups opposing the flag and EFF Lawyer Wendy Seltzer had come up with a unique and intriguing way of addressing this component of Hollywood’s plan to precisely control what you see, hear and do.

TVs built before the deadline would still be useable under the FCC’s Flag regime – and devices made now could be re-sold in the future.

The Wendy Seltzer Make Your Very Own Personal Video Recorder (PVR) with KnoppMyth r5a5 and pcHDTV scheme had interesting potential.

In the meanwhile, Edwards and one of the other two judges, David Sentelle, told FCC lawyer Jacob Lewis the law doesn’t give the agency specific authority to dictate how electronic devices must be made.

“It’s never been done before,” Reuters has Sentelle saying, agreeing with Edwards that, “the rule could set a precedent for a wide range of other new FCC regulations.

Sentelle also doubted if the EFF, et al, have standing to sue, but “Neither Edwards nor the other judge on the panel, Judge Judith Rogers, indicated whether they agreed with Sentelle on the issue of legal standing”.

In ALA v FCC, the groups – including the American Library Association, EFF and Public Knowledge – argued the FCC has overstepped its authority in mandating the Broadcast Flag and that the rule should be struck down.

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

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See:-
crossed the line - Overstepped Authority on Digital TV, Reuters, February 23, 2005
unique and intriguing - EFF Broadcast Flag challenge, p2pnet, February 22, 2005

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