US Appeals Court knocks down FCC broadcast flag ruling

[afterdub]

:) :)

Appellate Court Strikes
FCC's Anti-Piracy Rules

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
May 6, 2005 11:11 a.m.

A federal appellate court Friday invalidated federal regulations that require makers of TV sets to equip them with technology that prevents digital broadcast signals from being redistributed.

Ruling in a case brought by the American Library Association, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the Federal Communications Commission had overstepped its authority in trying to regulate how consumers can use their TV sets after they receive broadcasts.


The case involves something called the "broadcast flag," a slight digital modification to a broadcast digital TV signal, one that wouldn't affect picture quality but would prevent a recording of the show from being uploaded to the Internet.

The FCC, after strong lobbying from the Motion Picture Association of America, ordered it into place two years ago. By July 1, as part of the FCC rule, all video-recording equipment sold in the U.S. -- for instance DVD players and digital video recorders, including those on PCs -- must support the flag.

[Mug Funky]

w00t!

nice to see some good news :)

[hoozdapimp]

best news all year me thinks

[ParticleMan]

A really nice thing about this is that it sets a precident as well.

[calinb]

A celebration is certainly in order but the war isn't over yet. I suspect the media industry pigolopolists will now take their agenda to the US Congress and we all know how much money the pigos have invested there!:eek: (Something on the order of a billion dollars in campaign funding, as I recall.) However, we voters still control the actual votes and the fight will be much more above board than it was with the FCC ramming the BF down our throats through the administrative law process.

Now is the time to really step up public education activities. I'm still planning to host EFF Build-Ins in my community.

[reepa]

That was close. The deadline for being allowed to sell only broadcast flag compliant hardware was next month, wasn't it?

[mpucoder]

The deadline was July 1. But anytime something is before the courts an injunction can be sought, and usually granted.

[Doobie]

If hardware was required to have the broadcast flag, which broadcast wouldn't be using the flag? It would make "digital VCRs" worthless.

[dragongodz]

of course all it means is that it is not required to be supported. it does not mean that no hardware will support it.

[calinb]

Originally posted by Doobie
If hardware was required to have the broadcast flag, which broadcast wouldn't be using the flag? It would make "digital VCRs" worthless. Well, it certainly would've made the "virtual digital VCRs" running on PCs and Macs worthless for recording BF-protected content. Other CE devices designed to protect the recorded content (through encryption, for example) would have been allowed, I believe.

[Wilbert]

I suspect the media industry pigolopolists will now take their agenda to the US Congress and we all know how much money the pigos have invested there!
It took them a week.

Less than a week after a federal appeals court nixed the Federal Communications Commission's plan to forcibly implant anti-copying technology into digital TV tuners, Hollywood appears to be turning to Congress for some legislative aid.

Advocacy group Public Knowledge, which sued to challenge the FCC's broadcast flag, says it has obtained a copy of the Motion Picture Association of America's draft legislation.

The draft bill says, simply, that the FCC will "have authority to adopt regulations governing digital television apparatus necessary to control the indiscriminate redistribution of digital television broadcast content over digital networks." The District of Columbia Circuit nixed the flag on the grounds that the FCC didn't have the authority. This language would clear that up.
Indeed clear language. This is a quote from

http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-5706070.html?part=rss&tag=5706070&subj=news