Broadcast Flag 2 - Electric Boogaloo

Slashdot ^ | 05/13/2005 | Zonk

[Windcatcher]

blamanj wrote to mention that, a week after we reported on the court rejection of the broadcast flag, the MPAA is working on new legislation to broaden the FCC's power. From the article: "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 DC Circuit nixed the flag on the grounds that the FCC didn't have the authority. This language would clear that up."

[Windcatcher]

A little background: until last week, the FCC had a regulation in place that was to take effect on July 1. The regulation, created at the behest of the MPAA, would have banned any and all devices that would ignore a broadcast flag to be included in all HDTV broadcasts. The flag was to have up to eight values that allowed restrictions on recording HDTV broadcasts. For instance, a restriction might be that you couldn't record a broadcast, or that you could record it but playback equipment would automatically delete the recording after a certain period of time (e.g. one week).

This regulation was struck down by a federal court last week, which said that the FCC has not been granted the power to actually ban the creation or sale of equipment. As you might imagine, there has also been considerable outcry on the issue. Apparently, this hasn't deterred the MPAA at all, and they wasted no time drafting legislation to grant the FCC the power to give them the restrictions they have been trying to get.

This is just my opinion, but this appears to be a naked attempt to make HDTV VCR's illegal. Apparently they never got over the Sony Betamax decision that legalized VCR's, and once the switchover to digital and HDTV is complete they intend to make sure that VCR's are out of the picture. Expect lots of lobbying and bribery to take place on this issue.

[kingu]

Too little, too late. The cow is out of the barn already on this one - digital recording devices that can capture HDTV broadcasts are already on the market. Placing particular restrictions on future equipment creates unfair business advantages to those older units.

The courts will smack this one upside the head; congress knew this had to be dealt with a decade ago.

[sourcery]

If Congress enacts legislation granting the FCC such power, that will provide the Supreme Court with just the target it's been looking for to expand the scope of the Lopez decision (which declared the Violence Against Women Act Unconsititional because it was not properly a regulation of interstate commerce.) The workings of digital/HD VCRs has just as much nexus to interstate commerce as does "violence against women"--which is to say, essentially none.