FCC Broadcast Flag Struck Down

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.

Comments

These Activist Judges

[nate nice]

We really need to do something about them as they are obviously out of control. Don't they know who pays for their appointers election?!

Re:These Activist Judges

[ShaniaTwain]

..at least now they can get back to the important work of protecting the people from dangerous exposure to nipples.

They didn't strike it down!

[Anonymous Coward]

They just set it to 0.

Awesome!

[stlhawkeye]

This is great news. I don't doubt that illegal distribution of copyrighted materials is a problem that costs content-owners money, but this flag is not the solution. It's going to mostly penalize and restrict the rights of legitimate and honest viewers who don't do anything criminal with their recordings, they just re-watch them.

The onus is on the industry to find a solution within technology and capitalism, not within politics and law.

Re:Awesome!

[drunkennewfiemidget]

...It's going to mostly penalize and restrict the rights of legitimate and honest viewers ...

But hasn't that always been the issue with such nonsense laws?

• They make it illegal to redistribute DeCSS code so people can't copy DVDs, when most people being hurt by it are the opensource people who just want to watch their damned DVDs in Linux.
• They've suggested charging small amounts of money per e-mail to curb spammers, when the people most hurt by it will be those of us who e-mail a lot for legitimate, useful reasons.
• They run those obnoxious commercials before movies at the theatres telling us why pirating is bad, and wasting our time, despite the people guilty of these acts are the ones at home watching the movies on their computers, not the ones who paid $11 so they can sit through the movie.

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.

Won this battle but not the war

[flanksteak]

So it's nice that this lost, but it lost because the court said the FCC has no jurisdiction. This wasn't a victory for fair use, nor is it the end of the discussion. The MPAA will return to hammering Congress to either make the rule itself or grant the FCC the authority to do so (which the article clearly states at the end). This just gives us more time to get the word out about why the flag is a bad idea.

Re:Won this battle but not the war

[MobyDisk]

Good to see skepticism, but you missed what is significant here.

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.

Loss for words

[dlZ]

Now what am I supposed to do with the warehouse of capture cards I bought to resell after this passed!?

What about the TV distribution pipeline

[SiliconEntity]

Wow, that's great news, but isn't it coming a little late in the timeline? If sets on sale in July were supposed to have BF support, you'd think that they would already be being manufactured that way. The TV makers would have had to already have designed BF circuitry into their sets and be producing them with that capability, if all the sets in the stores by July were supposed to work that way, as required by the law.

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.

Yes and No.

[Qwerpafw]

The courts struck down the broadcast flag because the FCC was getting too big for their britches. They got all up in there, and the Judge was like "no you didn't." Judges do that a lot--watch Judge Mathis to see what I mean.

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.

What about the firewire port on cable boxs?

[gremlins]

Well I am happy there isn't a broadcasting flag anymore but what about firewire ports on cable boxes?

If you look at the ruling "FCC Eases Digital TV Transition for Consumers."(PDF) 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 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 just started supporting recording over firewire...