

Those essentially include delivering analog output without copy protection, digital output to a few low-end displays, or high-quality digital output to devices that also adhere to the broadcast flag specification. Such products could handle flagged broadcasts only in specific ways set by the government.

Under the proposed rule, it would have become illegal to "sell or distribute" any product capable of receiving broadcast-flagged shows unless the product complies with the FCC's regulations.

"Do you know of a computer now that doesn't touch the telecommunications infrastructure? The FCC was asserting jurisdiction over all information technology." "It would have turned the Federal Communications Commission into the Federal Computer Commission," Burger said. James Burger, a lawyer at Dow, Lohnes and Albertson who opposed the broadcast flag on behalf of tech companies, said the FCC's legal theory was deeply worrying for computer makers.
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But it's a reprieve for makers of HDTV sets, PC tuner cards, and USB and Firewire tuners-which will no longer have to redesign their products to comply with FCC rules.īroadcast and cable networks are losing the ability to dictate programming. The flag limits a person's ability to redistribute video clips made from the recorded over-the-air broadcasts.īut in January, a coalition of librarians and public interest groups filed suit against the regulations, arguing that they would sharply curtail the ability of librarians and consumers to make "fair use" of copyrighted works and would curb interoperability between devices.įriday's ruling represents a sizable setback for the Motion Picture Association of America, which had lobbied for the broadcast flag rules and had intervened in the lawsuit to defend them.
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Under the FCC rules, starting in July digital TV tuner manufacturers would have had to include the broadcast flag. appeals court noted that the FCC "has no power to act" until "Congress confers power on it" by enacting a law explicitly authorizing the broadcast flag. One result of Friday's ruling is that, unless it's eventually overturned by a higher court, the fight over digital TV piracy will return to Capitol Hill.
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"The FCC has no authority to regulate consumer electronic devices that can be used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission." (Click here for a PDF of the decision.) "The broadcast flag regulations exceed the agency's delegated authority under the statute," a three-judge panel unanimously concluded. Circuit ruled Friday that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to prohibit the manufacture of computer and video hardware that doesn't have copy protection technology known as the "broadcast flag." The regulations, which the FCC created in November 2003, had been intended to limit unauthorized Internet redistribution of over-the-air TV broadcasts. 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.
