Resurrect Broadcast Flag
p2p news / p2pnet:- The Big Seven movies studios have clearly been extremely busy in Washington.
At the behest of the studios’ MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), 20 US congresspersons are demanding that Broadcast Flag, the Hollywood DRM (Digital Restriction Management) and CC (Consumer Control) scheme, be resurrected.
A federal appeals court unanimously buried FCC regulations adopting the broadcast flag, says CNET News, but said though the FCC lacked the authority to outlaw TV tuners, “Congress could choose to enact a law allowing it.
Waving the broadcast flag anew are Charles Pickering, Edolphus Towns, John Shimkus, George Radanovich, Mike Ferguson, Marsha Blackburn, Bart Gordon, Mary Bono, Lee Terry, Ed Whitfield, Bobby Rush, Vito Fossella, John Shadegg, Eliot Engel, Albert Wynn, Michael Doyle, Charles Gonzalez, Charles Bass, John Sullivan and Frank Pallone.
In a letter Thursday, the politicians called for rapid approval of a federal law adopting the broadcast flag, which would outlaw over-the-air digital TV receivers and computer tuner cards that don’t follow strict anticopying standards, says CNET, adding:
No legislation has advanced in either the House or the Senate, but opponents of the broadcast flag have been warning that the proposal could be attached to spending bills. The bill funding the Federal Communications Commission through 2006, for instance, is still before a conference committee.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
CNET News – Politicians want to raise broadcast flag, September 30, 2005
October 4th, 2005 at 3:36 am
Glad i live in europe. The U.S politicians are so hungry for blood, they will shit on anyone to get it.
October 4th, 2005 at 4:34 am
That won’t save you. It just means that they’ll wait until they’ve got the US behaving before they go to the EC and say “The us is doing it! You should too!” and start applying pressure to make them conform as well.
But why do govt’s listen to bigbiz? Simple, bigbiz only gets taxed on their profits. If they argue that this flag would help increase their profits, it means more tax revenues for the govt. No corruption, not illegal, but undeniably attractive to govt.
It’s the govt’s fault for only taxing bigbiz on their profits. If they’d taxed them on their gross revenue, not only would there be no incentive by bigbiz to “work the books” to
“reduce” their profits for tax purposes, but the govts would be under less pressure to allow bigbiz to rip off consumers so much.
But of course if the govt even thought about changing the tax rules for bigbiz, every industry in bigbiz would start screaming about it and lobby for the issue to be dropped forever. So it’ll never happen. Pollies don’t have the will or the guts to take on bigbiz.
October 4th, 2005 at 6:04 am
Big companies find ways around, above and below taxes.
As in: they don’t pay any.
The extremely rich use loopholes and tax breaks to pay little to no tax, leaving the burden to those who can’t avoid paying them because they don’t have enough money.
The reason big companies get laws that favor them passed is because they pay politicians for it. They call it “financing” them or some such. Bribery is more like it.
And then they try to brainwash you with news organisations they own into thinking it’s for your own good.