New Yorkers for Fair Use Action Alert: -------------------------------------- Please send a comment opposing the "Broadcast Flag" Proposal to the FCC by this Thursday, December 5, 2002. Tell the FCC to Serve the Public, Not Hollywood! Okay, you folks understand this issue -- it's very important to send word to the FCC by the public comments deadline, this Thursday, December 5, that you OPPOSE the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking #02-230. This rule would make it illegal for ordinary citizens to own fully functional digital television devices. We've made it easy; just follow the links below. 1) Please send in your comments to the FCC using the form provided below. Tell them that the movie industry should not get a special privilege to own fully-functional digital television devices. Read the alert below for details. 2) Please forward this alert to any other interested parties that you know of, who would understand and see the importance of this issue. 3) Volunteer to help us with this and other alerts related to your rights to flexible information technology in the future. Two roles you can take up are to become a Press Outreach Campaigner or a Commentator. Simply reply to this email to show your interest. New Yorkers for Fair Use Action Alert: -------------------------------------- Tell the FCC to Serve the Public, Not Hollywood! Public Comments Needed to Stop the "Broadcast Flag" Proposal at the FCC Please follow this link and use the form on the Center for Democracy and Technology's site to let the FCC know that the public's rights are at stake: http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/fcc.flag.xhtml. What's Going On: The FCC is considering a proposal that digital televisions be required to work only according to the rules set by Hollywood, through the use of a "broadcast flag" assigned to digital TV broadcasts. Through the deliberations of a group called the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group which assiduously discounted the public's rights to use flexible information technology, Hollywood and leading technology players have devised a plan that would only allow "professionals" to have fully-functional devices for processing digital broadcast materials. Hollywood and content producers must not be allowed to determine the rights of the public to use flexible information technology. The idea of the broadcast flag is to implement universal content control and abolish the right of free citizens to own effective tools for employing digital content in useful ways. The broadcast flag is theft. In the ongoing fight with old world content industries, the most essential rights and interests in a free society are those of the public. Free citizens are not mere consumers; they are not a separate group from so-called "professionals." The stakeholders in a truly just information policy in a free society are the public, not those who would reserve special rights to control public uses of information technology. Please go to the Center for Democracy and Technology's Broadcast Flag Action Page and use their form to let the FCC know that the public's rights are at stake: http://www.cdt.org/action/copyright/. ---- Some background links: http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/one-page.pdf http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect15.22.html#III http://www.cdt.org/press/020807press.shtml http://scriban.com/movabletype_archives/000334.shtml http://scriban.com/movabletype_archives/000331.shtml The following link is the FCC's "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" for the broadcast flag. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-02-231A1.pdf