CALL NOW to fight the BROADCAST FLAG!

[mikea]

Just as we predicted IT'S B-A-A-A-C-K!!!!

Rumor is afoot that Hollywood is taking another crack at the Broadcast Flag on Capitol Hill, this time by sneaking a Flag provision into an appropriations bill before the Senate.

If what we hear is true, the provision will be introduced before a subcommittee tomorrow and before the full appropriations committee on Thursday. That gives us 48 hours to stop it.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003720.php

What's the point of buying a congress if you can't make use of it, huh?

This is guaranteed to be a "give us an inch" and "frog in hot water" deal.

They will say that they intend only to put the flag on high value premium content. Come the day when everything you see has the flag they will not seem to understand when you question them about it.

I already saw on Jann's Sony what happens when it gets confused with the DRM on the HDMI (digital HDTV signal) cable. After the HD DVR went nuts the TV displayed a message, "Content not authorized. Please switch to the analog input." in a large blue screen over the program - meaning the TV has decided that you can't watch what you're sending to it. Do you want to see that all of the time?

CALL YOUR SENATOR! Use the form on the link above to send a fax!

 

[mikea]

There's a web based form on the EFF link above to Fax your senator for the states that have senators on the appropriations committee. Quick and Easy.

I sent mine to Senator Durbin.

Update: the EFF is saying the response had been good - in the 10s of thousands. If the industry thought they could sneak this one in without the good senators noticing, they just got proved wrong. The senators are all now wondering what flag all these folks are talking about and why it's bad.

 

[bbchien]

Thank you, Mike. So did I.

 

[mikea]

Unfortunately, the National Association of Broadcasters is planning to push Congress to enact a law mandating the broadcast-flag circuitry.

The value of the broadcast flag is apparent. It was to create a new conduit for distributing of movies and special-events programming that would defeat any time-switching or other legitimate consumer desires. It's really not about the Internet and piracy, as everyone claims. Piracy and Internet distribution will not be stopped by this technology. This is a red herring.

Above all, the broadcast flag would probably kill much of the functionality of the TiVO-like DVR devices that are becoming more and more popular. Both the Hollywood and TV folks are getting concerned about the commercial-skipping features of these devices.

These issues are all about the money. Not for the moviemakers, but for the big studios. Over the years, Hollywood executives discovered, by chance, that they could negotiate the DVD and other rights from movie makers as "ancillary," which gives the studios the bulk of the profits, cutting out the creative folks who must make their money on the theatrical releases and box-office receipts. This scam was called "something nobody knows about" by Francis Ford Coppola on AMC's obscure talk show, Sunday Morning Shootout. He implied it was used as a gambit to rob filmmakers. One must assume that creating a new channel of distribution via the broadcast flag would also involve some money-making scheme that would screw the moviemakers and benefit the big corporate studios.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1814163,00.asp

 

[mikea]

The Broadcast Flag amendment was never attached. It was just a rumor... ...or it became just a rumor once the phone lines lit up and the good senators learned that "The People" were watching.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003730.php#003730

As it says there the next time the movie and broadcast tries to sneak it in a few senators will know its a hot potato. The problem now is only ones on the committee got the heat this time. Let's hope the rest hear about this. At least there are only 100 that need to get the word.

Imagine if it passes. We should let it be known to every soccer mom that your congress made it law to break your TV. Do you think they know now why the kids MUST watch the commercials and the previews every time they watch a Disney DVD?