# Broadcast Copy Protection Flag: Round 2



## cdru (Dec 4, 2003)

Round two of the fight is now just starting.

If you remember, the FCC unsuccessfully argued that since Congress didn't say they couldn't, they could enforce the copy protection flag rule. The courts disagreed. MPAA has proposed draft legislation that would grant the FCC just that power.



> The draft bill says, simply, that the FCC will "have authority to adopt regulations governing digital television apparatus necessary to control the indiscriminate redistribution of digital television broadcast content over digital networks." The District of Columbia Circuit nixed the flag on the grounds that the FCC didn't have the authority. This language would clear that up.


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## zmark (Apr 18, 2005)

Now is the time to start a FUD camapaign informing everyone that congress wants to take away your VCRs and Tivos.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

zmark said:


> Now is the time to start a FUD camapaign informing everyone that congress wants to take away your VCRs and Tivos.


Perhaps, before launching your FUD campaign, you should get your facts straight.


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## Guest (Jul 3, 2005)

Nick said:


> Perhaps, before launching your FUD campaign, you should get your facts straight.


The facts are clear - after this court defeat, the broadcasters are attempting to get legislation passed that would mandate the broadcast flag. They are hoping to accomplish this by getting the legislation attached as an amendment to a major appropriations bill or some other piece of unrelated legislation.

The broadcast flag could be used not only to prevent legitimate "fair use" copying of programming, it could also be used to prevent people from even time-shifting programs with DVRs.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Even without the broadcast flag implemented, some hardware manufacturers have already seen to it that you can't use a DVI or HDMI output on their device to feed a DVI or HDMI input on a device that isn't HDCP compliant. I tried hooking the DVI output on a Scientific Atlanta HD set top cable box to the DVI input on my 26" HD LCD TV and was greeted by a message that the box had detected a TV that wasn't HDCP compliant, and I'd have to use analog component video output instead.


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2005)

That's because manufacturers were preparing to comply with the FCC-mandated broadcast flag.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

rcoleman111 said:


> That's because manufacturers were preparing to comply with the FCC-mandated broadcast flag.


Exactly the point I was making.


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## kb7oeb (Jun 16, 2004)

The broadcast flag is a set standard that can be implemented if by broadcasters and manufacturers if they want. I don't really care if most of the manufacturers keep making their stuff BF compliant as long as its legal to ignore the BF. The way the BF was going to be run the FCC would have to get approval from two major studios before a device could be sold. Imagine if the VCR or TIVO had to go through that when they came out? We probably wouldn't have them or they would be severely crippled.

This is one device the BF would kill http://pchdtv.com/ I don't see any way it could be made compliant with the rules. This card simply dumps the ATSC stream to disk, it doesn't decode it in any way. If I point it at my local PBS I can record all three program streams at once. The BF flag requires that the video be encrypted when traveling an open bus like PCI and has to stay that way until the display. The only way I can think of to make that work is with an HDCP and DVI. Most computer monitors with DVI don't support HDCP and I doubt any video cards do either.

I think the argument that people are more likely to copy HD is BS. Most of the people I know who are downloading movies are willing to watch crappy movie theater camera recordings. They often look for the smaller files to download. Regular ATSC is 8GB an hour,even if you were willing to wait to download these most ISPs have a 20 or 30GB limit and will cut you off even if you have "unlimited" use service.


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