Feast your eyes on the image below. That is the portrait of FCC chairman Michael Powell and he doesn't look like a happy camper in this shot. I'm not a physician, but I fear his discomfort could be gastrointestinal in nature. Or maybe he heard someone is tearing up the world sharing an episode of "Jackass" I don't know. Too bad, as he will be at the helm when federal regulators meet later this week . Possibly to adopt rules meant to keep people from copying digital broadcasts of television shows and movies for distribution on the Internet. As we reported earlier, this could also warrant the need to purchase new equipment to avail ourselves of this hardware hobbling tech.

Fortunately there is some opposition.

But the proposed regulations, which the Federal Communications Commission may adopt this week, have been criticized by consumer advocacy groups, and others, who say they would not effectively prevent piracy but could curtail the legitimate copying of television programs and might render current consumer electronics equipment obsolete. The companies that designed the technical elements of the rules include important equipment makers like Hitachi, Intel, Matushita, Sony and Toshiba. But some other equipment makers, among them Phillips Electronics, say the new rules may be anticompetitive by requiring all manufacturers to use the technologies developed by the group - and quite possibly also pay licensing fees. The critics have suggested that the rules will face court challenges on the grounds that the agency lacks the authority to issue them

Well, how will "important equipment makers" like it if folks get wind of this prior to the holiday buying season and decide to hold off a few years while the FCC gets the kinks out of it's legislation? Somebody must have thought of that, due to this hastily penned note from one of the primary provocateurs of this new legal smackdown.

"The broadcast flag will not obsolete the some 50 million DVD playback devices currently in consumer homes," Jack Valenti, the president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, wrote in a letter last Wednesday to Michael K. Powell, the F.C.C. chairman.

Whew! What a relief Jack, thank goodness your calling the shots!

Source: nytimes.com