[ale] OT: [Fwd: [EFGA] We won on Broadcast Flag]

[Geoffrey]

Good news!

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [EFGA] We won on Broadcast Flag
Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 11:47:38 -0400
From: Robert A. Costner <pooh at efga.org>
To: efga-action at efga.org

Today the appeals court handed down the decision that the ALA won against
the FCC and the MPAA concerning broadcast flag.   The court ruled that

"[the FCC does not have the authority] to regulate
apparatus that can receive television broadcasts when those
apparatus are not engaged in the process of receiving a broadcast
transmission. In the seven decades of its existence, the FCC has
never before asserted such sweeping authority. Indeed, in the
past, the FCC has informed Congress that it lacked any such
authority. In our view, nothing has changed to give the FCC the
authority that it now claims."

This is a victory for us consumers who want to use tomorrow's technology
without the MPAA coming into our living rooms telling us what we are and
are not allowed to do with the TV set we purchased.

Broadcast Flag is a technology measure from the Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA) to tag television shows and movies and require by law
that electronics can only play, pause, record, etc. if authorized by the
flag embedded in the movie.  This illegally issued FCC regulation would
have been an end run around the Betamax case that is the basis for VCRs
being legal in the US.

The Broadcast Flag can also be viewed as a technological implementation of
the goals of the s-DMCA bill introduced in Georgia a couple of years
ago.  See http://www.efga.org/ip/sdmca/

Robert A. Costner
Executive Director
Electronic Frontiers Georgia
http://www.efga.org

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-- 
Until later, Geoffrey