The Federal Communications Commission is fighting back against a July court ruling that threw out the organization's regulations against indecency on broadcast television, the Los Angeles Times reports.

After celebrities like Nicole Richie, Cher and Bono swore during award shows in 2002 and 2003, the FCC ruled in 2004 that television networks can be fined for those instances when such off-the-cuff expletives are broadcast. Last month, a New York appeals court threw out the organization's rules, saying they were unenforceable because they were so "unconstitutionally vague and chilling."

But, as expected, the FCC has appealed the decision made by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last week's Second Circuit U.S. appeals court ruling striking down the FCC's indecency policy has a lot of people excited. They're either thrilled that network TV will now be free to explore creative turf once restricted to cable, or they're alarmed that such exploration will turn network TV into a haven for smut and destroy the innocence of America's children.

The long-term trend on network TV may be toward more risqué programming, but in the short term, nothing much will change. The same kabuki act we've witnessed for decades -- with activists making hay out of censorship battles, the FCC trying to stem the tide of indecency, the courts trying to stay out of the whole mess, and the networks ever so slowly pushing the content envelope toward what's allowed on cable -- will continue as before, with everyone playing their appointed roles.

Today, a U.S. Appeals court ruled that the FCC's indecency rules were "unconstitutionally vague," and overturned the commission's entire slate of indecency rules.

This ruling was in response to cases of "fleeting" expletives or incidents, like the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction or Bono uttering the f-word at the Golden Globes; the court felt that there "is ample evidence in the record that the FCC's indecency policy has chilled protected speech."

But the impact of this ruling will reverberate much more than you think; the court threw out the entire set of indecency rules the FCC had been using since 1978, after a radio station played George Carlin's 'Seven Dirty Words' routine on the air. The court just felt that it didn't pass constitutional muster that, for instance, the commission could judge that the use of 'bulls--t' in an 'NYPD Blue' episode was indecent, but the use of 'd--k' and 'd--khead' were not.

Of course, most people who have never been a fan of the commission's random indecency rules could have told you that years ago. But the big question now is: what does this mean for the broadcast networks?

That answer seems pretty easy: Until the FCC can come up with an indecency policy that can be deemed constitutional, the broadcast networks are likely going to use this opportunity to push the envelope even further than they do now, especially after 10PM.

Interesting article up at Ars Technica regarding the FCC's curious habit of not publishing what its indecency rules are. Fox is challenging its fines saying that it's unfair that they should be penalized for not following unpublished rules. The FCC's stance is that if they published a rulebook regarding what you could and couldn't say on broadcast TV, they'd be censoring people. By leaving it unpublished and only reacting when there's a complaint, they're encouraging self-censorship and I guess can sleep easy at night knowing that the first amendment is kinda, sorta still in place.

The FCC has dismissed indecency charges against ABC's NYPD Blue and CBS' Early Show, but has upheld charges against - oh, delicious irony - Fox.

Back in April, the networks sued the FCC and asked an appeals court to invalidate the Commission's charges of indecency against NYPD, Early Show and Fox's broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards in 2002 and 2003 on the grounds that the charges were unconstitutional.

ABC got off easy. The NYPD Blue episodes that used the words "dickhead" and "bullshit" were let off the hook because they aired several years ago - before the FCC upped its fines 10x, post-Janet wardrobe malfunction.

Here we go again. The FCC just handed down a big, fat, steaming pile of fines to the big four networks for indecency. Surprisingly, the biggest fine of all was against Without a Trace. CBS and 111 of its affiliates might have to pay a whopping $3.63 million fine. To put that in perspective, Howard Stern only racked up $3.5 million in fines for the CBS network. What was so offensive? A scene in a December 2004 episode that depicted teen-agers in an orgy. CBS strongly disagrees with the fine. The FCC also refused to reduce the fine for the Janet Jackson Super Bowl boobage, which stands at $550,000. Also for CBS.