Night of the living Broadcast flag: Hollywood shops asinine legislation on the Hill

So we're totally not surprised to see that the MPAA has moved quickly to draft up some legislation to shop around to Congress to help them implement the Broadcast Flag that was struck down last week by a U.S. Court of Appeals. Advocacy group Public Knowledge has gotten hold of a copy of the legislation, which specifies that the FCC should have "authority to adopt regulations governing digital television apparatus necessary to control the indiscriminate redistribution of digital television broadcast content over digital networks." The DC Circuit court's decision said that the FCC does not currently possess that authority, and the Congressional bill seeks to establish this ridiculously broad and sweeping power to the FCC to regulate all contractual relationships between digital TV suppliers and any device that can receive a digital TV signal (are there any devices left that can't?). The legislation also describes the right to "plug the analog hole," which means inserting "watermark detectors" in all devices that perform analog-to-digital conversions — enabling "features" like shutting off your camcorder when pointed at your television. Sounds smart, but why stop there? Excuse us while we pack up all of our belongings and move to Amish country, where they've managed to successfully head off any and all forms of such vile piracy. All those hymns are in the public domain — right?

[Thanks, Alex]