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FCC Broadcast Flag Struck Down
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri May 06, 2005 11:55 AM
from the system-works-sometimes dept.
from the system-works-sometimes dept.
An anonymous reader writes "CNet is reporting that the courts have struck down the FCC's broadcast flag requirement! 'In a stunning victory for hardware makers and television buffs, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards starting July 1.'" The EFF has details on the flag, the official ruling is online for examination, and commentary is available from BoingBoing and Ars Technica.
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These Activist Judges (Score:5, Funny)
Re:These Activist Judges (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:These Activist Judges (Score:4, Funny)
Especially babies!
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Re:These Activist Judges (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:These Activist Judges (Score:5, Insightful)
You could just as easily say that the powers of the United States Treasury are delegated to it by the Treasury Act. That doesn't mean the Secret Service is a Congressional authority.
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Re:These Activist Judges (Score:5, Informative)
Remember that the courts can only affect issues that are brought to their attention. If you think the FCC has overstepped its authority in other areas, file more lawsuits.
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They didn't strike it down! (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes and No. (Score:5, Insightful)
The courts didn't say that the broadcast flag was illegal because it interfered with fair use rights. While the effects of this ruling are to encourage consumer rights, that hardly seems to be the intent of the judgement. The fact is, the FCC was never supposed to make these kinds of rules--and someone finally called their bluff.
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Re:Yes and No. (Score:5, Insightful)
And this is important because what the court in essence did was throw the issue back to Congress - where copyright issues constitutionally belong. If you think the broadcast flag is dead, think again - all the court said was "this is unenforceable as an FCC rule - only Congress can make such a rule."
So you can bet the MPAA is on the horn right about now to every senator and representative they've ever donated money to trying to call in a favor. And you can bet they'll get that favor, probably sooner rather than later. There are still almost two months before that July 1 deadline - it is not just possible, but probable that the broadcast flag will still take effect on that date, this time enacted by congress and signed into law by Bush himself.
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Re:Yes and No. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not so sure about that. Certainly we should continue to be vigilant, but FCC commissioners don't have to explain to voters why they made it illegal to record Survivor.
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Awesome! (Score:5, Insightful)
The onus is on the industry to find a solution within technology and capitalism, not within politics and law.
Re:Awesome! (Score:4, Interesting)
I honestly believe the FCC stopped fighting for the broadcast flag because of all the negative publicity it would have caused. Anybody who knew what it is would just buy a tuner card early and not be affected by it. Everybody else would find out when they tried to record things and couldn't... making them furious. Overall this was a PR nightmare, and was only going to get worse.
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Re:Awesome! (Score:5, Insightful)
But hasn't that always been the issue with such nonsense laws?
One bad apple spoils the bunch.
Either that, or the people passing these laws desperately need to give their heads a shake.
At last, a win for you poor Americans.
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Won this battle but not the war (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Won this battle but not the war (Score:5, Insightful)
The FCC has been extending its power significantly, with the broadcast flag being just a small piece of that. The courts telling the FCC that they do not have this power is huge. It eliminates the possibility of the FCC taking away citizen's rights without the democratic process being involved. At least Congress persons are answerable to their constituents. The FCC is not. (This is the whole problem with Congress creating agencies. It's a way to extend government power without making it answerable to the other branches.)
Now is the time to start sending positive letters to justices and congress persons to prevent Congress from trying to enact the broadcast flag themselves.
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Corporations can't vote (Score:5, Insightful)
You can be unhappy with the way your fellow citizens vote, but corporations aren't electing these people into Congress. Other people in your community are. If you don't like that, don't sit on your beanbag and complain about how corporations are destroying the country. Go out and tell people why they should vote the way that you want them to. Money is just a megaphone. If you're spouting garbage, it will just make the garbage stinkier.
It's funny how the things that are beyond our control are the things that we'd otherwise have to get off our buns and do something about.
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Depends on how you look at it (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a variety of factors in place, but if you posit that the average voter is intellectually curious and able to form opinions not based on sound bites I'd tend to agree with you.
However, this simply isn't the case. Congressional elections are viewed with much less interest than the Presidential election (which is ironic in itself) and voters as a whole don't tend to be intellectually curious OR well informed. So it truly does become a matter of money, which is where the corporations CAN influence policy.
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Maybe not (Score:3, Interesting)
When there weren't anything but non-BF devices on the market, the MPAA couldn't use the DMCA against the manufacturers. Now that everything is BF-compliant any device that isn't can easily be painted as a circumvention device under the DMCA and the manufacturer sued out of existence.
Re:Maybe not (Score:4, Interesting)
This will merely require a firmware update to the existing PSIP generator systems to remove the feature.
The BF itself is embedded in the data that originates from the broadcaster. So, even if the PSIP generator contains the ability to pass along the broadcast flag, content providers need not simply provide the setting. (Which in this case, apparently makes it unlawful to do so.. though I haven't yet read the article)
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Lawyer: a bit more on the type of ruling (Score:5, Informative)
This is the stronger of the two main ways that the court could have struck down the ruling. Often, it's the *form* of the rule, in paraticular the way the administrative agency chose to make the rule, that gets struck down. This leaves the agency free to pass the same rule through the proper process. (Similar to the way the appellate court struck down the judge's behavior in the microsoft case--the governmet could have sought another order splitting microsoft.)
In this case, it's the *substance* of the rule that was stricken. The FCC *cannot* regulate in this area, and cannot try again.
However, this didn't adress the question of whether or not Congress could grant the power to regulate in such an area, nor whether Congress could pass such a law itself.
hawk, esq.
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Temporary until Congress acts (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd hope that the consumer electronics lobby is stronger than the MPAA, but I fear it isn't so.
jh
Re:Temporary until Congress acts (Score:4, Interesting)
This is exactly what has caused me to abandon the Republican party. The Republicans used to be the party of small business and the Democrats were the party of big business. That's not the case and it's getting to be less and less the case. The Republicans are firmly in the pockets of big business and the Democrats are ... just insane.
I'd hope that the consumer electronics lobby is stronger than the MPAA, but I fear it isn't so.
Part of the consumer electronics industry is also part of the content management industry. Sony's subsidiaries are both members of the RIAA and other subsidiaries produce consumer electronics. O, the tangled we weave!
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Re:Temporary until Congress acts (Score:3, Interesting)
We shall see though.
Re:Temporary until Congress acts (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that this might piss off the handful of voters who actually pay attention probably doesn't even enter into the equasion for most of them, sad to say.
I just watched my own state legislature give away the farm to SBC under a similar model. He who paid the most won, only 3 votes against. It's not like the bribes aren't mostly out in the open, it's just no one pays enough attention for it to matter to them.
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Loss for words (Score:5, Funny)
first? (Score:3, Funny)
A collection of highlights from the case (Score:5, Informative)
It's not over yet (Score:5, Insightful)
What about the TV distribution pipeline (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if there will be a way to disable BF circuitry in sets which get sold that already have it built in? Or will the makers even tell people that they are buying sets that are BF enabled? Maybe some people will buy them without even knowing it.
Re:What about the TV distribution pipeline (Score:4, Informative)
Not necessarily, because a lot of HDTV's aren't even really TV's at all - they're monitors. It's up to you to decide what tuner to use, be it a PC tuner or a set-top box.
No PC tuner in existence right now respects the broadcast flag, and the way the flag is implemented, it is not something that can just be "turned on" in new drivers or firmware. It requires another chip on the board. So if you buy a piece of hardware that does not respect the BF, it will never respect the BF, and because tuners are relatively cheap to make and ship, tuner manufacturers were all sitting on the sidelines waiting this out and producing non-BF hardware in the meantime. (No doubt they had updated designs in the wings, but there was no reason to produce them yet.)
It's also worth noting that, AFAIK, equipment couldn't be made after July 1 without respecting the broadcast flag. So manufacturers could have, if they wanted, made sets and tuners right up to June 31 that did not respect it, and then switched over on July 1.
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This is really great (Score:4, Interesting)
Death to Television (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Death to Television (Score:3, Insightful)
Next ... (Score:3, Interesting)
FCC had no right to assist the content creators, pushing them on to the HD realm. The market and the millions of tv viewers should instead spearhead that, and creators who turn a deaf ear will find out finicky eyeballs prefer HD over SD as HD compatible TV's get ever cheaper and between equally bad scripted shows, they pick the better looking one.
Wonder what the Southpark creators would do with HD
Unfortunately, this will not stand (Score:4, Insightful)
So long as the following tweaks to the system are not implemented Congress will be able to ignore the wishes of the people and grant any and all favors to their lobbyists.
No representative or senator should ever be allowed to vote on any piece of legislation which they personally have not read
Any vote on anything that involves de facto laws, rules, regulations or monetary impact of any kind must be by roll call vote
The name of the legislator who introduced or modified each line of text in each and every bill must be fully disclosed
The 17th amendment must be repealed
I favor a broadcast flag (Score:3, Funny)
It's the End Times! (Score:4, Funny)
Some remarks. (Score:5, Informative)
As an aside the American Library Association (ALA) has been very active [ala.org] in working to protect our fair-use rights and trying to make copyright law more balanced, even though they might not be as well known here as the EFF and ACLU are. I would highly encourage anyone who cares about these things to help support them
It's Deal Making Time! (Score:4, Interesting)
So far the entertainment industry has strongly opposed anything that looks like censorship. But they are also so vigorously pursuing stronger copyright restrictions that they may be willing to deal. If they believe they can make more money by giving up creative freedom in exchange for stronger copyright laws, I believe they'll do it in a heartbeat. To get the broadcast flag now, they'll have to deal with Congress.
Sliding my donation over to the EFF (Score:5, Interesting)
No more donating to the ACLU for me - it's all EFF from now on.
The ACLU was needed in the age of McCarthy, but the work of the EFF seems more beneficial to me right now - in the short as well as the long term.
Re:Sliding my donation over to the EFF (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose the ACLU had its place back in the day, but I much prefer the Unix-style "each tool does one thing" approach of the EFF and NRA.
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Go GNU Radio! (Score:5, Informative)
As open source, it fails the robustness rules. Heck, as open source, it even encourages "user tampering." With today's victory the project has some hope, and we can see some future innovations exploiting it.
Get your facts straight, already (Score:5, Informative)
We have stories about the Federal legal decisions almost every day. Yet Slashdotters (and worse, the Slashdot editors) manage to read all these stories without learning anything about how the courts work. Pretty pathetic.
What about the firewire port on cable boxs? (Score:5, Informative)
If you look at the ruling "FCC Eases Digital TV Transition for Consumers."(PDF) [fcc.gov] it states that all digital cable boxes must have a firewire port. This port is used to control the box and record from it. Now this has been in effect for a while now, although it takes alot of effort and showing your cable company this [fcc.gov] pdf article to get them to give you a box that has a firewire port and that port is enabled. My concern is the ruling seems to also removes the FCC's power in this area as well.
And the worst part is MythTV [mythtv.org] just started supporting recording over firewire...
this gives us more opportunity (Score:5, Insightful)
AS always write, fax, email. Maintaining freedom takes regular work, few hours per week.
Hiding the goose that lays the golden egg (Score:4, Insightful)
They are essentially trying to rewind the calendar to before they xxAAs lost the 'fair use' trials against those pesky player pianos. (And radio and TV and restaurant juke boxes and sheet music.)
They are against anything that makes a noise and they aren't getting paid. And fair use doesn't enter into their vocabulaty.
Joe Wal-mart (Score:4, Insightful)
HDTV equipment couldn't be made in the US for export, because no other country would want broadcast flag equipped products, ensuring the ongoing death of manufacturing in America.
It would raise the cost of, and decrease the desirability of better HDTV, increasing the time until we can turn off the old signals.
The airwaves belong to the Public, and private interests should not be allowed to run rampant over the limited useful spectrum, all of the FCC's decisions should have a statement explaining exactly how it is expected to benifit the public, with respect to the spectrum used; just as with the EPA and Environmental Impact statements.
private encrypted tranmissions have a place (cell phones, military, wireless networking), and it other areas a balance can be struck (TV networks using satillites to send shows to affiliates should be protected) but government angencies should not profit from, or pander to business interests. (except from taxing their profits)
Re:Turn Off the Idiot-Box! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:To all those "activist judges" out there (Score:5, Insightful)
Ain't nothin' "activist" about this.
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