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The broadcast flag returnsThe broadcast flag returnsPosted Oct 6, 2005 23:50 UTC (Thu) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)Parent article: The broadcast flag returns Maybe someone can answer a question I have from the previous defeat of the broadcast flag. At the time of the court decision, I read quotes from multiple equipment manufacturers saying the facility to respect the broadcast flag was already in the pipeline and it was too late to stop it from going into consumers' devices. But they followed up by saying that because of the court ruling, it didn't matter -- the consumer wouldn't even know the facility was there. But since the facility is there, why wouldn't broadcasters turn on the flag in their broadcasts and take advantage of it?
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The broadcast flag returns Posted Oct 7, 2005 4:19 UTC (Fri) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link] They certainly will, even if just for the possibility it will become law in the future. What it means is that it has no legal force. You won't be a criminal for not obeying the bit. End users with devices which can't be modified won't be able to take advantage, but people with capture cards for their computers, with devices which can have new firmware flashed, or which are handy with a soldering iron, could.
The broadcast flag returns Posted Oct 8, 2005 0:37 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] So the manufacturers were wrong when they said the presence of the facility would be transparent to consumers because of the court decision? It sounds to me like the court decision had virtually no practical effect, but nobody was saying that at the time.Considering that copyright owners really don't care about people with video capture cards or who modify their equipment or update firmware (there aren't enough of us to matter), it sounds like the regulation actually took effect, whether the FCC had the right to make it or not.
The broadcast flag returns Posted Oct 8, 2005 7:47 UTC (Sat) by ddaa (guest, #5338) [Link] Whether users of unmodified devices from major manufacturers are subject to a de-facto broadcast flag restriction does not matter.
What matters is that it is legal to develop and use devices that are not bound by this restrictions.
In the digital world, the difference between "notionally allowed to" and "legally prevented from" is big, because it only take a few people to come up with something new and, with time, change rules, if only there are not legally prevented from doing so.
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