As in "Casablanca," certain proposed government regulations require rounding up the usual suspects. Take, for example, the proposed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule to require encryption technologies or a "broadcast flag" approach intended to keep pirates from swiping digital broadcast signals and widely distributing the material over the Internet.

Friday was the FCC deadline for comments on the measure, and in the usual Washington cat-and-mouse game of politics, major lobbying organizations waited until the last minute to make their filings. And, as usual, there was nothing surprising about their comments: the entertainment industry supports the proposed rule, and consumer groups and electronics manufacturers oppose it.

The FCC has set a 2006 deadline for all TV stations to broadcast a digital signal by 2006. Having watched the digital music piracy wars, broadcasters and content providers fear the same thing will happen with their digital content. Television manufacturers and consumers groups see users' "fair use" rights being dismissed in the name of corporate profits.

"Because it is transmitted in the clear, digital broadcast television is subject to an extraordinarily high risk of unauthorized redistribution over digital networks such as the Internet," the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) stated in its Friday filing. "The threat of such wide-scale piracy, if not addressed, will discourage content providers from making their high-value programming available over free, off-air broadcast television. Such a development would impair the transition to digital television and deny consumers high-quality over-the-air content."

The MPAA comments were filed with a number of other organizations, including broadcasters ABC, CBS and Fox; artists groups American Federation of Television, Radio Artists (AFTRA) and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Screen Actors Guild, Inc. (SAG), Writers Guild of America, east, Inc., Writers Guild of America, west, Inc., and the Directors Guild of America; International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees; Motion Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States; AFL-CIO; and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).

The Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), a leading advocacy group for consumers' rights to use home electronics products for private, non-commercial purposes, and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which represents more than 1,000 corporate members, took a different, though not surprising, point of view.

"Interactive digital technology offers consumers endless benefits, but also presents the potential danger of content owners choosing by 'remote control' not only the copy status of content in consumers' homes, but also the home interfaces that may be active at any time," CEA vice president of technology policy Michael Ptericone said. "Some encryption and marking schemes could even control the viewing resolution at which content may be enjoyed. This clearly exceeds the reasonable protections that may be necessary to guard against illegal use of copyrighted content for personal gain."

In the case of the broadcast flag specifically, CEA's filing argues encoding rules are necessary that preserve reasonable and customary consumer practices and prevent application of the "flag" to news and educational programming in particular.

"Ultimately, the government must ensure that customary consumer choice and the liberties, privacy and freedoms of one's own home prevail," Petricone said. "As CEA consistently has maintained, the fair use, free commerce in devices, and first sale doctrines provide that there should not be any constraint on retransmission within a circle of friends and family and that this fair use 'circle' may appropriately extend both within and outside of the home."

The HRRC emphasized that the concept of a "flag" designed to curb the mass, anonymous redistribution of broadcast content over the Internet did not arise from "concerns over what consumers might do on a customary basis. Nor is it aimed at constraining consumers' own use of their home networks."

The key question, states the HRRC, is whether the ancillary consequences of a "broadcast flag" are acceptable, "in a political and business climate in which consumers' reasonable and customary home recording and fair use rights are under assault."

The deadline for filing responses to the comments is Jan. 17. The FCC will review the comments and decide whether or not to enact the proposed rule.