Here's the short and sweet. The broadcast flag is the MPAA's attempt to keep you from doing any sort of home recording. It would keep you from:
-Recording shows and watching them later
-Timeshifting shows
-Make it illegal to alter any device to ignore the broadcast flag to do either of the above
This has been tried once and the Supreme Court told the FCC to get its head out of Hollywood's ass and that it didn't have the authority to impliment such a thing. Now, it will be introduced tomorrow before the Senate Appropriations Committee as part of a larger spending bill. That's right, they're going to sneak it in under legislation that must get passed for the government to keep running.
What you can do:
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?page=UserAction&cmd=display&id=145
If you're from Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, or Wisconsin, your Senator is on the Appropriations Committee. Use the above link to call them up or use the webform to drop them an email and tell them you think this is bullshit.
If you value your Tivo/DVR, any portable multimedia device, streaming media, or any form of digital recording device, do something now.
