FCC Loses “Broadcast Flag” Fight

In a time where the FCC and MPAA and the like are over-exerting their powers to control, limit, and out-and-out stop the sharing of copyrighted material, seeing the FCC lose this battle was a great moment for a TV fanatic like myself.

Via CNET:

Under the FCC rules, starting in July digital TV tuner manufacturers would have had to include the broadcast flag. The flag limits a person’s ability to redistribute video clips made from the recorded over-the-air broadcasts…In general, consumers would have been able to record broadcast-flagged shows and movies, but would only be able to play them back on the same device…The three judges on the appellate panel foreshadowed this week’s decision by suggesting that the FCC had overstepped what the law permits. "You’re out there in the whole world, regulating. Are washing machines next?" asked Judge Harry Edwards. Quipped Judge David Sentelle: "You can’t regulate washing machines. You can’t rule the world."

Ah, yes, but the FCC wants to rule the world and surely will appeal this decision. The question of "fair use" seems to be the issue everywhere these days. Why is it that I can use a VCR to tape a TV show and give the tape to a friend, but burning a DVD of downloaded TV shows (via a TV torrents website, for example) is in question? The torrents represent shows that someone, someshare is sharing. We’re not playing them for audiences or making money off of them. We’re just watching TV in our home home…it just so happens that we’re watching on the PC instead of the TV.

The same with MP3s. Mix tapes were never an issue, though I spent YEARS of my youth taping my favorite songs off the radio or using a friend’s tape collection in one of the handy-dandy dual-decked boom boxes to create my own special mix. But now, an MP3 shared via Peer-2-Peer is an illegal activity…and one you could be sued for!

Perhaps the problem is the scale - mix tapes and VCRs are "casual copying" between friends whereas P2P and BitTorrent are strangers sharing entire collections of music and movies with hundreds and thousands of other strangers. Still, the concept is the same: OK to share, not OK to sell. However, I still say, depsite the availability of MP3s, AVIs, etc on the internet today, consumers will still buy the CD, the DVD, etc. for the added content…lyrics, photos, deleted scenes, shorts, higher quality sound or picture, or even just because the packaging makes it special. When you pay for something, you should get something better than freebie file you could have downloaded. And THAT is the way the "pay-for-me" copyrighted material should be marketed - "Sure, you can get it free, but buy it and get MORE!"