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Action Alert: Help fight the broadcast flag

UPDATE (6/22/05) FROM EFF VIA BOING BOING. Thanks to all everyone's effort, we're winning!

I try to be discriminating with action alerts, so suffice it to say that when we post one here we think it's pretty important.

If you live in the following states, please take a minute to contact your senator about the broadcast flag legislation discussed below (courtesy of Public Knowledge). These call only take a few seconds; you either leave a message in voice mail or ask a secretary to write down your name as opposed. Painless!

MS, AK, PA, NM, MO, KY, MT, AL, NH, UT, ID, TX, OH, KS, CO, WV, HI, VT, IA, MD, NV, WI, WA, ND, CA, IL, SD, LA

FROM PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE:

We won the broadcast flag case, but this thing just won't die!  You've
heard that some in Congress want to bless the FCC and reinstate the
broadcast flag, but how could they do such a thing without even a hearing
or without us all knowing?

Public Knowledge has discovered that the "powers-that-be" may attempt to
sneak the broadcast flag onto a spending bill.  That's right, we've heard
word that The Senate Committee on Appropriations (the committee that
decides how your tax dollars are spent, or appropriated) will be
considering the spending bill **TOMORROW**, and that broadcast flag may be
hitching a ride as an amendment.  Without any debate, the content
protection scheme could be added to a bill that was originally meant to
spend money--not protect content.

We need your help right now!  If you live in one of the following states:

  MS, AK, PA, NM, MO, KY, MT, AL, NH, UT, ID, TX, OH, KS, CO, WV, HI, VT,
  IA, MD, NV, WI, WA, ND, CA, IL, SD, LA

one of your Senators is on the Appropriations Committee, and they need to
hear from you **TODAY**.  Click here to find out your Senator's phone
number here...

http://www.publicknowledge.org/resources/us-senate-approps-109

...pick up the phone now, and ask your Senator to oppose any broadcast flag
appropriations amendments.  The following talking points should help:

* There has been No Debate in the Appropriations Committee over the
  Broadcast Flag.

* No Government Mandated DRM: Content protection is one thing, but
  government mandated content protection that puts the FCC in the
  role of gatekeeper for new technologies is wrong.  There are
  other options for protecting content, and the marketplace should
  sort them out.

* Broadcast Flag is Not Narrow: There is no “narrow” way to implement
  the broadcast flag scheme because it necessarily puts the FCC in
  the role of gatekeeper, having to approve and certify every
  technology that might carry DTV - computers, cellphones,
  gameboys, etc.  As proof of the broad scope of the flag, when
  petitioned to exempt lawful uses of digital television, the FCC
  declined saying “practical and legal difficulties of determining
  which types of broadcast content merit protection from
  indiscriminate redistribution and which do not.”

* Causes Consumer Confusion and Will Slow DTV Transition: At a time
  when Congress is concerned about making television sets obsolete
  at the end of the DTV transition, the flag would similarly render
  obsolete much consumer equipment because commonly used devices
  will not work together unless all use the same copy protection
  technology.  The flag will not help the transition to DTV, and
  indeed might harm it because it makes consumers’ TVs less
  functional than before.

* Limits Fair Use: As the May 11, 2005 Congressional Research Service
  report noted, the flag will prevent important fair uses, like the
  ability of teachers to engage in distance learning and the
  ability of individuals to email fair use portions of works to
  themselves and others.

* Not about P2P: The infringement associated with Revenge of the Sith
  and other movies that have appeared online has absolutely nothing
  to do with the flag.  Rather, the flag is about protecting
  supposedly "free" over the air digital television.  MPAA provided
  no evidence that this content was being pirated nor would it be
  anytime in the near future.

* Content Already Shown in HD with NO PROTECTION: In contrast to the
  argument that broadcasters won't put on “high value” content, we
  note that most prime time television is already broadcast in
  HDTV, without protection.  Viacom threatened in 2002 to withhold
  programming, but did not do so and is now one of the leading
  producers of HDTV.

* Court Spoke to the Merits: The D.C. Circuit's broadcast flag decision
  was not merely "procedural."   In ruling that the FCC did not
  have the authority to impose a broadcast flag scheme, the Court
  was ruling on the scheme's merits - namely, that it is so far
  reaching in its scope that it would permit the FCC, in the words
  of one judge at oral argument, to regulate "washing machines."

Sincerely,
The Public Knowledge Team
June 20, 2005