What is the “broadcast flag”?
The broadcast flag is technology that controls the use of Digital Television (DTV) signals. There are two components to the technology: the flag itself, which is machine readable data (called the “redistribution control descriptor”) inserted into DTV broadcasts, like a label, without affecting picture or sound quality; and the reader of the flag, which is built into the equipment receiving or demodulating the DTV broadcast (such as a television, DTV tuner card in a computer, etc.). When the reader checks a signal and finds a broadcast flag, it knows that there are limitations on the use of that signal. The American implementation of the broadcast flag carries with it a troubling third component: a technology mandate. All consumer electronics equipment capable of receiving DTV signals must be flag “compliant”, in that it incorporates government-approved flag-honouring technology. Content owners claim that they will only use the flag to remove the ability to further transmit that signal
