So it looks like we should make some more phone calls next week, including at least one thank you call to Senator Sununu’s office. Here’s what Alex says:

It reinstates the FCC’s previous version of the broadcast flag, except it says that the FCC can amend it in any way it sees fit, meaning it could throw out the 13 approved technologies, it could allow the MPAA a greater say in the approval process (as was originally contemplated), and it could again say that it doesn’t have to permit fair use.

Congress is mandating the use of DRM, plain and simple. Although one part of the bill seems to give a nod to fair use, it’s done in the same way as it was under the DMCA. Meaning, the bill ignores fair use. It reads that the FCC’s regulation won’t affect fair use rights- well, it won’t. Those fair use limitations still exist under the copyright law- but as we know well, DRM legally trumps fair use thanks to the DMCA.

It pretends to prevent the flag recording/copying function from being used for “news and public affairs programming the primary commercial value of which depends on timeliness” however, it leaves it up to the broadcasters to decide what falls into that limitation. Broadcasters would use the broadcast flag to “protect”their content when broadcast over television, by claiming it doesn’t fall into the “timeliness” limitation.

Go read the whole thing. Think you’re safe since buying that pricey new HDTV? Think again. It sounds like what’s in the bill, and what Sununu is trying to take out, is basically Bizarro World “regulation,” in which interoperability goes out the window. Which means you could buy all-new, supposedly correct TVs, VCRs, etc. from different manufacturers- only to find that none of them work together.

Hat tip Dad, via slashdot.