Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., chief backer of the DTV transition legislation, said it "represents the committee's starting legislative point to solve the DTV problem." Tauzin has been meeting for nearly a year with key stakeholders in the DTV debate to speed up the transition.

Under the proposal released Wednesday (Sept. 18), the Federal Communications Commission would formulate rules requiring digital receivers to recognize broadcast flags that indicate what digital programming can or can't be copied for home use. The requirement would kick in on Jan. 1, 2006, which is the target date for completing the DTV transition.

The copy protection scheme, which is strongly backed by Hollywood, is designed to prevent the unauthorized redistribution of marked DTV broadcasts over the Internet.

Consumer groups opposed the copy protection proposal. "The broadcast flag is fundamentally anti-consumer," Digitalconsumer.org said in a statement. "The bill asserts that fair-use will be protected at the same time as providing content providers with bulletproof piracy protection. But no such technology exists to meet both of these goals."