FC&WMC?

Earlier this week, oral arguments were heard by a federal appeals court on a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's broadcast flag regulations. The idea is to require the makers of digital receivers to build their devices to respond to a "flag" contained in digital content and prevent unauthorized copying.

The court, however, seemed unconvinced that the FCC has statutory authority to make such demands—their mandate is to push ABC around, not Sony—prompting Judge Harry Edwards to ask: "Are washing machines next?" Don't give them ideas, yeronner, this is post-reductio America, after all.