The "thing" was reported to be too scary to show in the ad, according to the movie producer, but it turned out to be a cute moth Godzilla was trying to kill. Kind of like the way the MPAA portrays fair use, doncha think?

So, Chris Murray, Legislative Counsel of Consumers Union, Mark Cooper, Dir. of Research at Consumer Federation of America, Mike Godwin, Senior Technology Counsel at Public Knowledge and Jonathan Rubin, Research Fellow at American Antitrust Institute have written a letter to the FCC on the BF. Their three major concerns:

1. After the flag is adopted, will consumers have the same reasonable and customary uses with their digital television content that they enjoy in today's analog world? The proposal offered by the Motion Picture Association of America makes clear that the Flag scheme will tether user-recorded content in new ways. It will not allow consumers to watch that content on machines other than new, compliant devices (but it is unclear if it will permit recordings to be shared within a user's own "personal digital network"). Not only will current DVD players not be able to play the recording, but if someday more than one encryption technology is approved, recordings made with one technology probably will not play on players licensed to decrypt the other, absent an interoperability requirement from the FCC. Let's be clear: while the MPAA has offered assurances that users will have the same flexibility they currently enjoy, they have demonstrated no technology which shows this is indeed possible.
2. If the Flag scheme does not effectively prohibit internet transmission of recorded programming doesn't it follow that the scheme may fail to prevent the problem at which it aims? For example, if users can play flag-protected content on any compliant device, it may be possible to transmit the encrypted data recorded on a DVD for a recipient to use on a remote compliant device. Or it may be possible to post a complete "compliant" DVD image on a website. Certainly, an individual could record on broadcast content from an analog output, and then simply distribute that content to another user over the internet. So much for defeating Internet copyright infringement.
3. Because the Flag is ineffective without mending the "analog hole," then is it perhaps not worth its costs? Shouldn't the Commission consider the costs and benefits of closing the analog hole in the context of this proceeding rather than some future proceeding. As Chairman McCain noted in his letter to the Commission on Oct. 16, the Broadcast Flag is an incomplete, and therefore ineffective solution, absent a solution to the "analog hole." We agree that we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but lack of any analog-hole solution means that the broadcast flag scheme doesn't even qualify as "good." Nor can such a non-solution be worth the costs it would impose broadly on the consumer electronics and computer marketplaces.