Significant Procedural Victory in Broadcast Flag Lawsuit

Prof. Susan Crawford reports good news regarding a court challenge to the broadcast flag (Broadcast flag order).

Several groups, including the American Library Association, Public Knowledge, Consumers' Union and others, have challenged the FCC's jurisdiction to issue the broadcast flag rule. A very short version of the argument is that Congress didn't give the FCC carte blanc to regulate all consumer electronics that might have to deal with a video signal. Anyway, the FCC claimed that the court should wait to hear the challenge until the FCC has considered requests to make the existing rule even more aggrandizing. The court has rejected that argument and ordered the case to continue undelayed. Read the one page court order: American Library Association v. Federal Communications Commission [PDF].