[DMCA-Activists] ALERT DEADLINE 12/6: Stop the Broadcast Flag at the FCC

[Seth Johnson]

(The deadline for public comments on the "broadcast flag"
DRM proposal at the FCC is December 6.  Log in and tell them
not to steal your rights to flexible information
technology.  It's your Internet, your TV, your TIVO, your
VCR, and they have no business taking these away.)


Tell the FCC to Serve the Public, Not Hollywood! 

Public Comments Needed to Stop the "Broadcast Flag" Proposal
at the FCC 

The following action item at New Yorkers for Fair Use
provides a link to the Center for Democracy and Technology's
form for submitting public comments to the FCC's on the
broadcast flag proposal:

> http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/fcc.flag.xhtml. 


What's Going On: 

The FCC is considering a proposal that digital televisions
be required to work only according to the rules set by
Hollywood, through the use of a "broadcast flag" assigned to
digital TV broadcasts. 

Through the deliberations of a group called the Broadcast
Protection Discussion Group which assiduously discounted the
public's rights to use flexible information technology,
Hollywood and leading technology players have devised a plan
that would only allow "professionals" to have
fully-functional devices for processing digital broadcast
materials.

Hollywood and content producers must not be allowed to
determine the rights of the public to use flexible
information technology. The idea of the broadcast flag is to
implement universal content control and abolish the right of
free citizens to own effective tools for employing digital
content in useful ways. The broadcast flag is theft.

In the ongoing fight with old world content industries, the
most essential rights and interests in a free society are
those of the public.  Free citizens are not mere consumers;
they are not a separate group from so-called
"professionals." The stakeholders in a truly just
information policy in a free society are the public, not
those who would reserve special rights to control public
uses of information technology.

Please go to the Center for Democracy and Technology's
Broadcast Flag Action Page and use their form to let the FCC
know that the public's rights are at stake: 
http://www.cdt.org/action/copyright/.