The content industries and their allies are attempting to use the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceedings on the broadcast flag and on setting new rules for “plug and play” devices to assert widespread control over digital and analog media, according to Public Knowledge and Consumers Union.In a March 15 filing with the FCC on the broadcast flag, the groups said, “We have concluded from reading the full range of submissions in the broadcast-flag and plug-and-play proceedings that full regulatory control over all the ways consumers use content is precisely what certain content holders want.” Had such controls been in effect in 1976, when the video cassette recorder (VCR) was invented, “devices such as the VCR, the TiVo personal-video recorded, and Windows-based ‘media PCs’’ would have been drastically hindered on their way to market – if allowed at all,” Public Knowledge said in its filings.

Via PublicKnowledge.org