A broadcast flag is a set of status bits (or "flags") sent in the data stream of a digital television program that indicates whether or not it can be recorded, or if there are any restrictions on recorded content. Possible restrictions include inability to save a digital program to a hard disk or other non-volatile storage, inability to make secondary copies of recorded content (in order to share or archive), forceful reduction of quality when recording (such as reducing high-definition video to the resolution of standard TVs), and inability to skip over commercials. In the United States, new television receivers using the ATSC standard were supposed to incorporate this functionality by July 1, 2005, but a federal court struck down the Federal Communications Commission's rule to this effect on May 6. The stated intention of the broadcast flag was to prevent copyright infringement, but many have asserted that broadcast flags interfere with the fair use rights of the viewing public. This article is about the unit of information. ... In computer programming, flag refers to one or more bits that are used to store a binary value or code that has an assigned meaning. ... It has been suggested that Digital terrestrial television be merged into this article or section. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... It has been suggested that High Definition Video be merged into this article or section. ... Standard-definition television or SDTV refers to television systems that have a lower resolution than HDTV systems. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... Advance Television Systems Committe (ATSC) tuner allows reception of over the air high definition digital television signals in North America and South Korea. ... The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is the group that helped to develop the new digital television standard for the United States, also adopted by Canada, Mexico, and South Korea and being considered by other countries. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The FCCs official seal. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... Copyright infringement (also known as piracy) is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owners exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it. ... Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. ...

The FCC rule

The FCC's rule is in 47 CFR 73.9002(b) and the following sections, stating in part: "No party shall sell or distribute in interstate commerce a Covered Demodulator Product that does not comply with the Demodulator Compliance Requirements and Demodulator Robustness Requirements." According to the rule, hardware must "actively thwart" piracy. A demodulator is an electronic circuit used to recover the information content from the carrier wave of a signal. ...

The rule's Demodulator Compliance Requirements insists that all HDTV demodulators must "listen" for the flag (or assume it to be present in all signals). Flagged content must be output only to "protected outputs" such as HDMI ports, or in degraded form through analog outputs or digital outputs with visual resolution of 720x480 pixels (EDTV) or less. Flagged content may be recorded only by "authorized" methods, which may include tethering of recordings to a single device. It has been suggested that High Definition Video be merged into this article or section. ... The High-Definition Multi-media Interface (HDMI) is an industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. ... An analog or analogue signal is any continuously variable signal. ... A digital system is one that uses discrete numbers, especially binary numbers, or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (an analog system). ... Enhanced definition television, extended definition television, or EDTV is a shorthand term for certain television formats. ...

Since broadcast flags could be activated at any time, a viewer who often records a program might suddenly find that it is no longer possible to save his favorite show. This and other reasons lead many to see the flags as a direct affront to consumer rights. Consumer protection is government regulation to protect the interests of consumers, for example by requiring businesses to disclose detailed information about products, particularly in areas where safety or public health is an issue, such as food. ...

Particularly troubling to open source developers are the Demodulator Robustness Requirements. Devices must be "robust" against user access or modifications so that someone could not easily alter it to ignore the broadcast flags that permit access to the full digital stream. Since open-source device drivers are by design user-modifiable, a PC TV tuner card with open-source drivers would not be "robust". It is unclear whether binary-only drivers would qualify. Projects could also be affected at the application level. In theory it would likely be illegal for open-source projects such as the MythTV project, which creates personal video recorder (PVR) software, to interface with digital television demodulators. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or a software driver is a specific type of computer software, typically developed to allow interaction with hardware devices. ... tv-card A TV tuner card is a computer component that allows television signals to be received by a computer. ... MythTV is a GPL open source application for Linux designed to allow any computer (that meets the specified minimum requirements) to function as a personal video recorder. ... A digital video recorder (DVR) is a device that records video to a digital storage medium in digital form. ...

Some companies currently manufacturing devices, such as the pcHDTV devices intended for the Linux market, would likely be forced to halt production. This portion of the rule also effectively prevents individuals from building their own high-definition television sets and receiving devices. (It may seem far-fetched to a layman, but there have been many instances in the past where engineers have built their own analog TVs, and it follows that some people would wish to continue such pursuits in the digital age. The technologies used will most likely be centered around software-defined radio, fast ADCs and FPGA chips - tools with so generic use their availability can not be effectively restricted.) pcHDTV, Inc. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. ... A software-defined radio (SDR) system is a radio communication system which uses software for the modulation and demodulation of radio signals. ... An analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D or A to D) is an electronic circuit that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. ... An Altera FPGA with 20,000 cells. ...

The GNU Radio project already successfully demonstrated that purely software-based demodulators can exist and the hardware rule is not fully enforceable. GNU Radio is a free software toolkit for learning about, building, and deploying Software Defined Radios. ...

Current status

The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the FCC had exceeded its authority in creating this rule. The court stated that the commission could not prohibit the manufacture of computer or video hardware without copy protection technology because the FCC only has authority to regulate communications, not devices that receive communications. It is possible that a higher court may overturn this ruling, or the United States Congress may get lobbied by industry interests into granting such authority to the FCC. Some of the major U.S. television networks have stated in the past that they will stop broadcasting high-definition content if the rule does not go into effect. The United States Courts of Appeals (or circuit courts) are the mid-level appellate courts of the United States federal court system. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. ... The IBM ThinkCentre A Series is a popular line of computers. ... Congress in Joint Session. ... A television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. ...

If the proposed rule were ever to be reinstated, it is possible that non-compliant decoders will be manufactured for market in other locales, since Japan and the United States are the only countries to have such regulations. Some of these devices could find their way into "broadcast flag" countries like the United States.

As of June 21, 2005, there are rumors Hollywood is attempting to sneak the Broadcast Flag back as a rider on the Senate Appropriation bill. [1] June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In legislative practice, a rider is an additional provision annexed to a bill under the consideration of a legislative assembly, having little connection with the subject-matter of the bill. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... An appropriation bill or supply bill is a legislative motion which authorizes the government to spend money. ...

On May 1, 2006, Sen. Ted Stevens inserted a version of the Broadcast Flag into the Net Neutrality Bill. The draft section can be seen here [2], and the full text of the bill here [3]

Radio broadcast flag and RIAA

With the coming of digital radio, the recording industry is attempting to change the ground rules for copyright of songs played on radio. Currently, over the air (i.e. broadcast but not Internet) radio stations may play songs freely but RIAA wants Congress to insert a radio broadcast flag. On April 26, 2006, Congress held a hearing over the radio broadcast flag. Among the witnesses were musicians Anita Baker and Todd Rundgren. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a special interest group representing the U.S. recording industry, and the body responsible for certifying gold and platinum albums and singles in the USA. For more information about sales data see list of best selling albums and list of best selling... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Anita Baker (born January 26, 1958, in Toledo, Ohio) is an African American soul and adult contemporary Rhythm and blues singer. ... Todd Rundgren (born June 22, 1948 in Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. ...

See also

• Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Digital Transition Content Security Act
• Family Entertainment and Copyright Act
• Digital Content Protection Act of 2006 [4]
• Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006 [5]

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a controversial United States copyright law. ... The United States The Digital Transition Content Security Act (DTCSA, H.R. 4569) is a bill introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr. ... A controversial law passed in the United States of America that attempts to mitigate copyright violation by targetting anyone who has even a single copy of an unreleased film, software program or music file in a shared folder, regardless of whether that file is downloaded or not. ...

External links

• Electronic Frontier Foundation's Broadcast Flag page
• The Broadcast Flag and "Plug & Play": The FCC's Lockdown of Digital Television
• U.S. District Court shoots down broadcast flag (CNET)
• Broadcast Flag: Media Industry May Try to Steal the Law - June 2005 MP3 Newswire article
• Circuit Court ruling striking down (Abode PDF format)