A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial broadcast flag mandate today, ruling unanimously that the FCC acted outside the scope of its authority when it adopted broadcast flag regulations.
The FCC regulations stated that a flag should be attached to “over-the-air” digital content–both network and local station programs, such as movies or prime-time series. Any device with a digital TV tuner can grab that content, whether it comes over an antenna or through a cable or satellite set-top box. The flag, basically a piece of code, was to have traveled with any show that the broadcaster wanted to protect.
Under the regulations, new consumer electronics devices–including tuner cards for computers–that receive digital TV signals were to have shipped with the ability to recognize the flag and to respect its copy restrictions.
“This is a huge victory on a couple levels,” says Ren Bucholz, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s policy coordinator for the Americas. “The court kind of rebuked the FCC for overstepping its bounds… We’re ecstatic that the courts had such wonderful language in this decision and that it was a unanimous decision.”
Source: PC World
Articles RSS