We all know that the most evil concept in FCC history is attempting to be shoved down our throats, the broadcast flag. It will, in reality, stop the recording of TV shows by individuals on their PVR’s or DVD’s by placing a digital flag on the show when it’s broadcast that tells the recorder it cannot copy this program. If you take all the rotten, dirt tricks that the MPAA or the RIAA has been doing to us over the last few years and place them in one big pile, the pile of the broadcast flag would be much bigger. (You can imagine what the pile is with no help from me). The SF Guardian News has a great story of a group of folks that said we are not going to take it any longer. They are building their own TV which no broadcast flag can touch.
If you really want to help stop this evil movement on the part of the FCC and the broadcast networks, you need to go to the EFF.org website and make your feelings known. Here is a bit from the article; Hope is not lost – at least, not yet. Several public interest groups, including Washington, D.C.-based Public Knowledge and the EFF, as well as the American Library Association, are fighting the Broadcast Flag tooth and nail. Librarians worry that limiting devices that can output HD may interfere with future methods for distance learning and archiving. Public Knowledge is concerned with the bigger picture. As executive director Gigi Sohn puts it, “People who want to make fair use of copyrighted materials won’t be able to do it.” In other words, no personal copy of Animal Crackers to make the flight to Australia less arduous.