I know its old news but it seems that no one noticed what is perhaps the most important event in the long-running battle between Hollywood and East Asia. The “Broadcast Flag” was an attempt by studios to dictate how consumer electronics would behave when receiving TV broadcasts.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to prohibit the manufacture of computer and video hardware that doesn’t have copy protection technology known as the “broadcast flag.” The regulations, which the FCC created in November 2003, had been intended to limit unauthorized Internet redistribution of over-the-air TV broadcasts.