Fighting the Broadcast Flag

If you're dreading July 1st, the first day that the Broadcast Flag goes into effect, you may be in luck—Public Knowledge is leading a lawsuit against the FCC arguing that the commission does not have the authority to impose the Flag and dictate what manufacturers can and cannot do with their technology. (If you're looking for some background, Stephen Speicher did a pretty solid job explaining the ins and outs of the Broadcast Flag for us last week.) The FCC thinks they're just doing what's necessary to ensure that the film and television industries make their programming available via broadcast television (they're super paranoid about people sharing perfect digital copies of shows). Too bad that the Broadcast Flag probably won't do much to stop online "piracy"—people will still find plenty of ways to obtain the TV shows they want online—and is more likely to cause a ton of inconvenience and frustration for the average viewer when they can't get their DVR to work with their TV.