Broadcast Flag (anti-copying flag) struck down by Court.

[SirFozzie]

Wow..

As of July 1, all new equipment (TV's VCR's DVD recorders etcetera) would have to honor a "Broadcast Flag" embedded in movies and TV, which would have disabled the ability to copy the content, which had both legal (copying for backup purposes) and illegal (pirating) use.

DC Court of Appeals ruled the FCC did not have the right to mandate that hardware honor that flag.

Should be interesting to see if Holywood goes to Congress now.

[Airhog]

Where there is a will, there is a way. Look at the console machines. They have hardware built into the machine that stops people from copying their favorite game. So what did people do to get around this? They invented mod chips that override those functions. It may make it more difficult for the average joe to copy a dvd he rents from blockbuster, or record his favorite law and order episodes, but it wont stop the spread of piracy on the internet.

[sabotai]

I wonder what the world would be like if everything that could be used for an illegal purpose was made illegal....

[ISiddiqui]

Well VCRs wouldn't have existed (which is what Hollywood tried to do back in the day), which means no DVDs as well. Imagine the money that Hollywood would have lost for that.

Oh, and all computers would have to be illegal as well ;).

[Airhog]

The betamax case was the only thing that us home users can be thankful for. The judges basically said that you cannot hold the developer of a product liable for any sort of illegal misuse of said product.

You can't hold reminington responsible for someone shooting someone else with a remington rifle, and the same applies to VCR's and the like.

Kazaa and Morpheous have taken their case to the supreme court. Hopefully, the judges will uphold the betmax case, as this case is very similar to the betamax case.