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Hollywood Tastes New Copyright Victory - Act NOW

Posted by timothy on from the strange-embedded-fellows dept.

Geekwannabe writes "The FCC is about to pass regulations requiring all television manufacturers to include copy-protection in any television receiver or recorder. The 'broadcast flag' regulation is intended to allow TV networks and broadcasters to determine which of their shows you can record (essentially giving control of your VCR, TV and Computer back to the broadcasters.) In order for the new, copy-restrictions to succeed the FCC will make it illegal to manufacture or sell non-copy-protected devices in the U.S."

5 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. link to electronic comment filing system at FCC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.fcc.gov/e-file/ecfs.html

  2. key point by BigBir3d · · Score: 4, Informative
    This is for digital recorders, not VCR's.

    The Federal Communications Commission is weighing a plan to forcibly implant copy-protection technology in digital television receivers.
  3. Better link to comment filing system at FCC by doofusdan · · Score: 3, Informative
    http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi goes directly to the page you can enter comments on.

    From this page you can either type in a comment on the web page, or attach a document (PDF, DOC, TXT, and a few other formats).

    You need to include the proceeding number, which is 02-231.

    The link given in the comment I'm replying to is the FAQ for the comments page but I think most /.'ers don't need no steenkin' faq on filling out a web form.

  4. Looks like somebody's Fighting it by pythorlh · · Score: 3, Informative

    Looking at this , this , and this , someone has provided a form letter. And, since that first link's address is listed as "1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA," I wonder if we can guess who it is?

    --
    Do not confuse duty with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different.Duty is a debt you owe to yourself.
  5. Re:Attack the root cause of this. by bcboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Income tax was very, very popular with the public when it passed. Otherwise ammending the constitution would never have happened. They perceived, correctly, that existing tax methods (like sales tax) were regressive, in the sense that they had more impact on the poor than on the rich.

    Big government, in fact, has very, very little to do with how tax is collected -- money is money, when it's spent. Every industrialized country uses some combination of income tax, sales tax, and so-forth.