“A Three Ring Circus”
by Bill Ward
2005
Archive: May 2005
Victory in Broadcast Flag Case!
As I reported a while ago, the FCC wants to limit our ability to install digital TV tuners in our computers, and thus to build our own digital video recorders. The proposal would have made it illegal to make or sell tuner cards that would decode digital signals where a “broadcast flag” was set. This was supposed to protect the intellectual property rights of Hollywood but at the cost of making it impossible for us to watch such shows on anything but a commercially produced decoder box or TV. So now with this ruling, it will take an act of Congress for the FCC to get its way. The deadline of July 1 for buying broadcast-flag-free HDTV tuner cards is now gone!