The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today invalidated Federal Communications Commission rules requiring the implementation by home theater equipment manufacturers of the Broadcast Flag which was intended to stop individuals from copying certain digital television programs from one storage device to another. The FCC ordered the rules into place two years ago, saying that all video-recording equipment sold in the U.S. on or after July 1, 2005 must support the flag.
I’m obviously thrilled to hear about this decision. The Federal Government shouldn’t be placing copy controls on every digital media device because of the acts of some copyright violators. That would be like outlawing cash because some people don’t properly report their income and pay their taxes.
I haven’t linked to PVRblog in a while, but Matt Haughey has a good piece up already called Broadcast Flag shot down! that provides links to most of the information needed to understand this decision and what it means to each of us.