The (Movie) Empire Strikes Back.

This article focuses on the effort of the U.S. movie industry to protect its intellectual property and slow piracy by expanding its legal and legislative offensive against perceived threats as of February 2005. That effort has led to 200 lawsuits against users for allegedly trading movies over peer-to-peer networks. The war has already prompted vendors to strip features from products like DVD burners, personal video recorders, and other devices that can record or stream video. It has also forced software vendors such as 321 Studios, makers of controversial DVD copying software, to close shop. Copyright concerns have already led to restrictions on new products. In 2004, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted the Motion Picture Association of America further copyright protection. The FCC approved the broadcast flag, which is meant to prevent digital broadcast signals from being endlessly copied, whether for personal use or for commercial purposes. Under the commission's ruling, new digital video recorders, televisions, personal computers, and the like must, by July 2005, recognize the flag. The flag, which is sent along with the digital stream, tells compliant devices whether and how often a show may be copied, and whether copies can be transferred to other devices.