Broadcasters and movie studios look to Congress to save the broadcast flag - Engadget

the first place, do you? The industry has been threatening for years to halt all over-the-air high-def broadcasts unless the government mandates some sort of broadcast flag to prevent massive online piracy of their programs, so if the FCC can't give them what they need, it only makes sense that they'd seek help from yet another government body sympathetic to their cause: the United States Congress. Remember that the court didn't make a decision either way about the legality of the flag, they only overturned it because they believed that the FCC had overstepped its authority, not because the broadcast flag itself was illegal or unconstitutional.

So now the National Association of Broadcasters and the Motion Picture Association of America are gearing up to get Congress to enshrine the broadcast flag as law, something which would make it a lot harder to overturn in court.
It's their own fate. If this blocks DVRs from recording shows, then less people will be able to watch them resulting is less advertising all around.

On the other hand, stuff like this might push Video On Demand even further. People simply want to control what they watch and when they watch it. Wait until the right wants to be able to 'review' shows before they allow their kids to watch them.

Then we'll be back to square one again. Another arrow in the heart of Fair Use. But wait.

Isn't the spectrum used by broadcasters PUBLIC? Shouldn't WE THE PEOPLE have a say in whether broadcasters using OUR airwaves are required to have a broadcast flag that limits our FAIR USE of the content? We do, but unfortunately, it's through our lawmakers.

The same lawmakers that campaign over these very TV stations that are NAB members. Don't piss off the NAB..

. you might regret it later in your political career..

. or something like that. Next, they'll be pushing for some kind of broadcast flag on HD Radio.

Where can we go to express to congress that the public wants fair use?
#2 - Since when does "our" anything have anything to do with the political penis that Congress likes to flex? Hell, they're our roads, our water, our airwaves, our nuclear bombs, our everything.

...

does that mean we get any say over that crap? Well, yeah - if you want to vote. As if that makes any difference.

#3. Sure, you can go to your congressman's web site. They all have one.

Don't expect them to listen to you, though. Not unless you give them millions of dollars in campaign cash, anyway. GRRRRRRRRRR my government is pissing me off more and more all the time.

Like I said to one of my co-workers recently - if it wasn't for the courts protecting our individual rights, our country would be in one fucked-up situation right now. Not that it isn't..

. but it would be a whole lot worse. Somebody needs to step in and make some laws that protect our individual rights one of these days.

Good luck on that one happening. >=(

There's an awful lot of money and influence with the recording industry, and influence is what drives Congress. But I say go ahead and let them choose not to broadcast over the air in HD.

Doesn't bother me in the least because if anything it might spur additional content delivery mechanisms anyway. Besides, it sort of sounds like they are willing to cut off their own arm if that's what it takes to get more control. At some point, they're going to realize that the dictatorship tactics only lead to a revolt by the people.

No no no...

. these industries have done this for years. They threatened the same thing when the VHS came out, and guess what?

They still delivered content on VHS. They did the same thing when tapes came out. They're gonna try and threaten it again with HD, but guess what?

The government has already mandated that broadcasters have to broadcast in HD. So..

. it's just threats. They will, regardless of whether DRM is there, broadcast flags are there, or whatever else the recording industry threatens us with.

I just wish somebody would stick up for us for a change.

Congress via the FCC has been selling bandwidth rights. They want to sell more, and see the migration toward HD broadcasts as a way to do this.

The numbers involved are very large, in the billions of dollars. As an individual, I believe that we long ago established more than adequate ways for broadcasters and content owners to earn profits on the use of digital materials. Take note that the real motivation for the RIAA, MPAA, etal isn't piracy.

That's small potatoes. There's a much holier Grail out there for them. The big problem that the content owners have with the current system is that it just does not allow them to remove titles from view for any length of time.

Once consumers get copies of a title, it is out there, and consumers can play it at any time at their pleasure. This is a problem for content owners, who want the ability to "turn off" thousands of titles and just make a specific list of three or ten titles available for consumption. Record companies are interested in being able to do this as well, figuring that they'd be able to sell many more of a hot title if they could shut down the availability of hundreds of thousands of tunes out there that they're not making anything from.

This is silly, right? Never in a million years will they be able to completely shut down the playback of all those recordings. I believe that to be the case, it would be amazing for them to achieve it.

It will not stop them from trying. We hired our current senators and representatives to keep tabs on the federal government on our behalf. They're the folks who have our green light in these matters, and some of them are listening avidly to relatively noisy content provider lobbies.

I'd think that the rest of the electronics industry would take a clue from the foundering of what had been the very competitive Sony Electronics: Sony bought into content, and its own content interests started to dictate what the hardware groups should be doing and how, to the great detriment overall of Sony. The electronics industry should counter the content lobby with a stronger hardware lobby.

".

.. if it wasn't for the courts protecting our individual rights, our country would be in one fucked-up situation right now.

" I'm not terribly thrilled with the actions of the *IAA and the lawmakers blindly supporting them, but let's try to keep some perspective, okay? The American government works very hard to protect both individual and corporate rights. Sometimes the two clash and sides must be taken, but this country (USA) is still pretty damn good at protecting individual rights.

The fact that we all think it's worth our time to sit around and bitch about restrictions in our ability to consume entertainment is a good indication of how relatively well our government protects your rights. I'm sure you think you have a right to watch Battlestar Galactica any which way you want, and I would tend to agree, but keep things in perspective.

Does the original FCC rule mean that VCRs can't be used or are they useless anyway with the HDTV format?

in which he asks the FCC to call the bluff of those HD broadcasters. If they stop broadcasting in HD, people like Mark Cuban will eat their lunch, and they'll be out of business. Congress ought to have more sense than to mess with television too much, either - what do they think is keeping the downtrodden populace pacified, anyway?

It sounds to me like the Broadcasters are pushing a VERY weak case. They can threaten and complain all they want, but in the end it's the everyday consumer that decides their REAL policies. We wanted VCR's, so they gave into VCR's.

This mindless posturing about broadcast flags won't last 2 seconds, the very first time Joe-Smoe tries to record a TV show and his VCR/DVD-Recorder says NO. So even if they do manage to pass this nonsense, the public outcry will crush it soon after. I'd like to see them tell my mother she can't record her Soap's just because they are suddenly in HDTV!

She may not know what a broadcast flag is now, but the second she starts to miss shows because of these Flags, there will be hell to pay! Nobody messed with old people and their TV viewing, and gets away with it! ;)

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