Broadcast Flag stalled once again

It was a close call, but an amendment that would have tacked the Broadcast Flag onto an appropriations bill failed to make it out of a Congressional subcommittee yesterday. Apparently H.R.2862 was referred to the Committee on Appropriations without the amendment in question attached, which means that, for the time being at least, we're in the clear. Hard to imagine this being the end of the line though, since the MPAA is damned determined to get this thing enshrined into law, but public awareness about the Broadcast Flag and why it needs to be stopped seems to be growing, which will hopefully make it more difficult for some bought-and-paid-for Senator or Representative to sneak this through.

[Thanks, Mark]

[yup @ Dec 19th 2005 12:17AM]

only one word: GOOD!

[olderty @ Dec 19th 2005 12:17AM]

Here comes a noob question:

I know the flag is bad. I know that we all won't be able to buy certain TV cards for intercepting certain signals. I know that we wouldn't be able to take say a DVR recording and move it to a computer...

Is that it? What are the other reasons??

[Jazzay @ Dec 19th 2005 12:17AM]

i think i heard that it allows corporations (say mediacomm) to see exactly what your watching and for how long, i dont know tho, someone care to explain what the broadcast flag is exactly?

[Lisa Giovanni @ Dec 19th 2005 12:17AM]

Oh WOW!!!!