The Quiet Giant

Very recently a US Court of Appeals stopped the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) like a brick wall. At issue was the "broadcast flag" rule of 2003 that was seeking to protect the copyright of digital programming when received through regular broadcast media (through the air, TV, satellite, cable). The court basically said that the FCC does have authority over the transmission and reception, but once the signal has been received the FCC has NO authority to regulate what happens with that signal - a BIG win for freedom and consumers!
The court also said In the seven decades of its existence, the FCC has never before asserted such sweeping authority (WSJ). This could be a sign of the times. If a Big-Brother scenario were to materialize (more than it already has) it would have to include the FCC. Eventually all electronic sight and sound will be digital, and that raises the possibility of personal information, including usage and location, being dispersed back to some agency or even a mega-corporation for compilation. Who you are, where you are, what you're watching, when you're watching, how often you are watching, are you copying it, …
While the FCC is worried about you hitting the record button they have let the USA rank 13 th in the world in broadband penetration (Forbes issue May 9, 2005). South Korean households have some 40 times the broadband capacity than what American households have. About 15 years ago I worked on a project that used commercially available special modems that had a bandwidth of what DSL is now - yet they could not be used by ISP's because it would have violated FCC rules. Technology in the USA is sluggish and uncompetitive as it could be due to that quiet giant.