FCC Bans a Bit of Spam, Allows a Bit of Copying

The FCC is delicately stepping into the fray over two touchy issues: spam and “fair use” of copyrighted material. The regulatory agency issued a ruling banning some spam messages from wireless devices (phones, PDAs, and the like), but has left a large loophole through which spam can travel directly to individual phone numbers. “In another order, the FCC approved 13 different technologies that digital TV equipment makers can put into devices designed to work with new copy controls, known as the ‘broadcast flag,’ for digital broadcast signals.”