[DMCA-Activists] FCC Overstepped Authority on Digital TV

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [IP] FCC Overstepped Authority on Digital TV
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 19:48:43 -0500
From: David Farber <address@hidden>
Reply-To: address@hidden


------ Forwarded Message
From: Dewayne Hendricks <address@hidden>
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 16:13:27 -0800
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <address@hidden>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC Overstepped Authority on Digital TV

FCC Overstepped Authority on Digital TV
  Tue Feb 22, 2005 03:07 PM ET
By Peter Kaplan
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=7703873&src=rss/businessNews>

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said
that regulators had overstepped their authority by imposing a
rule designed to limit the copying of digital television
programs.

  "You crossed the line," Judge Harry Edwards told a lawyer for
the Federal Communications Commission during arguments before a
three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit.

  "Selling televisions is not what the FCC is in the business
of," Edwards said, siding with critics who charge the rule
dictates how computers and other devices should work.

  But it was unclear whether the judges would strike down the
FCC's 2003 rule, since doubts were also raised about whether the
American Library Association and other opponents had legal
standing to challenge the rule in court.

  After hearing arguments, the court usually takes several months
to issue a ruling.

  The FCC rule aims to limit people from sending copies of
digital television programs over the Internet. The FCC has said
copyright protections are needed to help speed the adoption of
digital television.

  Under the FCC rule, programmers can attach a code, or flag, to
digital broadcasts that would, in most cases, bar consumers from
sending unauthorized copies of popular shows over the Web.

  The rule requires manufacturers of television sets that receive
digital over-the-air broadcast signals to produce sets that can
read the digital code by July 1 of this year.

  The rule has been criticized by some consumer groups, who say
that it could raise prices to consumers and that it sets a bad
precedent by allowing broadcasters to dictate how computers and
other devices should be built.

  Edwards and one of the other two judges, David Sentelle, agreed
with the critics and told FCC lawyer Jacob Lewis that the law
does not give the agency specific authority to dictate how
electronic devices must be made.

[snip]


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