another great article about the copyright morass in the information age:
Hollywood to the computer industry: We don't need no stinking Napsters!more ...On its Web site, the Motion Picture Association of America provides a handy FAQ to help people understand the "broadcast flag," the latest copy-protection scheme that Hollywood wants the government to mandate. According to the MPAA, the idea is a near-perfect solution to a pernicious problem -- the threat that the coming age of high-definition TV will be derailed by a few bad apples intent on trading episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the Internet.
"What is the broadcast flag?" the MPAA site asks. To which it provides this simple answer:
The broadcast flag is a sequence of digital bits embedded in a television program that signals that the program must be protected from unauthorized redistribution. It does not distort the viewed picture in any way. Implementation of this broadcast flag will permit digital TV stations to obtain high value content and assure consumers a continued source of attractive, free, over-the-air programming without limiting the consumers' ability to make personal copies.Civil libertarians and computer hardware manufacturers are wary of any kind of government-mandated technology. But put this way, the broadcast flag doesn't sound very evil. If TV companies want to insert an invisible tag into their shows in order to ensure "a continued source of attractive" programming, so what? As long as the broadcast flag will, as the MPAA promises, not hinder our ability to make personal copies of the shows we love, we might well wonder, "How is this scheme going to hurt us?"
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