FCC Approves Anti-Net Piracy Regs on Digital TV

Digital television receiver makers must make their products recognize a "broadcast flag" embedded in television programs to limit online piracy by July 1, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission ordered November 4.

That deadline is two years earlier than the 2007 goal Congress first mandated for all television broadcasts to switch to digital formats, according to the Associated Press. After that changeover, t hose without cable or satellite subscription would require digital tuners inside a television set or by a set-top box.

With music proliferating in cyberspace, film and television producers and distributors fretted that consumers might likewise put copies of programs and movies for free online downloading, cutting their ability to sell programming for television syndication overseas, the AP said. FCC chairman Michael Powell told the AP his commission took "an important step toward preserving the viability of free over-the-air television."

All five FCC commissioners backed the broadcast flag order, but the body's two Democrats – Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps – had a few objections. Copps told the AP the flag should stay on protecting content and not veer off into tracking Americans' television viewing habits.

Consumer groups said the broadcast flag isn't the right solution to stop illegal copying, the AP added, but National Association of Broadcasters president Edward O. Fritts told the AP that without the flag, high quality programming would disappear from free television.