They Never Give Up: MPAA Tries To Sneak Broadcast Flag Bill Into Law
from the appropriate-this dept
You have to give the MPAA credit for tenacity. After politicians told the MPAA that they wouldn't roll over and legislate the broadcast flag when the courts realized that the FCC had no authority to mandate it, apparently the MPAA went to work on figuring out a sneaky way to get the bill approved. Following the lead of such laws as the Real ID Act, it appears that the MPAA has learned that all you need to do to get laws in your favor passed without having politicians even glance them over is to include them in a big appropriations bill -- so that's apparently exactly what they're doing. Apparently, a sub-committee is likely to slip the Broadcast Flag into a big appropriations bill tomorrow without any discussion at all. Once again, isn't it worth asking why these types of appropriation bill riders are allowed?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
