Federal appeals court strikes down Broadcast Flag
In what is a fairly major victory for consumers, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. today struck down FCC's Broadcast Flag rule, aimed at preventing piracy of movies and digital TV content (peep Demystifying the Broadcast Flag for the backstory). They said the FCC "exceeded the scope of its delegated authority" with the rule, which would have gone into effect by July 1, forcing TV set manufacturers to start using the technology in their boxes. The three-judge court panel said they could find nothing in the statute indicating that Congress meant to provide that kind of sweeping authority to the FCC, so it looks like the MPAA is out in the cold on this one. We're bracing ourselves for the resulting tantrum.
[Thanks to all of you who sent this in]
