This is a geek-rights issue that could impact anyone who watches TV, so listen up. The Electronic Frontier Foundation provides some background:

The future of television is digital. In fact, the FCC has already said that television manufacturers will be required to include digital television (DTV) tuners in their sets after 2007. You may not have heard much about DTV yet, but Hollywood is already there, lobbying the FCC for regulations that will force “content protection” technology into every DTV device, including televisions, PVRs (including digital TiVos), and any computer that touches a DTV signal.

The technology that the MPAA has pushed on the FCC is known as the “broadcast flag.” Here’s how it works. Content owners plant a digital “flag” in their broadcast television programs, designating whether the program is to be “protected” by devices that receive it. The FCC then forces all the makers of DTV tuners — whether implemented in hardware or software — to adopt “content protection” technologies that will recognize and respect the flag. All “downstream” devices (such as digital recorders, computers, or display devices) must also include the same technologies if they want full access to the programs.

What does this really mean? Well, if the FCC mandates the broadcast flag, then someday, your digital Tivo will tell you things like, “Sorry, but FOX says I cannot let you record the Super Bowl.” In other words, we will end up living in a world in which you pay for the privilege of receiving content, and are then restricted from doing things that are legal with the content you have paid for.

If you do not want to live in that world, please take a moment to read the EFF’s latest Action Alert.