The broadcast flag, a signal that would be embedded in digital broadcasts and inform consumer devices that the content was not to be recorded, may appear as a footnote in studies of the US’ transition to digital television broadcasts, which largely went off without significant disruptions. Where it won’t appear, however, is in any of the digital content that’s now freely streaming across the airways. If this doesn’t surprise you, then you weren’t paying careful attention to media news about five years ago, when content owners were predicting dire consequences for Hollywood if digital copies of its productions could be made unmolested. The fact that the DTV transition went off with barely a mention of the broadcast flag suggests that at least someone has been paying attention to the music industry’s DRM experience.

It’s actually fairly easy to track the history of the broadcast flag merely by performing a search for articles mentioning it on Ars, and noting the date on which they were published. With HDTV equipment starting to fit some definitions of “affordable” and planning underway for the DTV transition, industry figures lobbied hard for the ability to control what content could be recorded by hardware on the receiving end. The FCC ultimately adopted a pro-broadcast flag policy, only to be told by a US court that it had overstepped its mandate in doing so.

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