Thou Shalt Not Record

An ugly new piece of broadcast flag legislation will be discussed by the Senate Commerce Committee today, and it carries the potential of sending digital media to an early grave. The Digital Content Protection Act (DCPA) would make it illegal and/or impossible for you to record anything broadcast on digital or satellite radio or TV by allowing the FCC to require copy-protection flags on all new consumer electronics. And we're not just talking digital radio or TV receivers anymore: there's a loophole in the text that would allow the FCC to mandate that these flags be placed in any device that might come into contact with radios or TVs (that means DVD players, MP3 players, computers, cell phones, etc).

You can bet that the RIAA and MPAA are throwing all sorts of money at this effort to dispose of that nasty "fair use" caveat in copyright law. You know, the one that allows us regular folks to record a program and listen to it later (time-shifting), to use part of a program as a teaching tool in the classroom, or to provide a critique of the work. Instead of embracing digital media as a new sales market, these thugs would rather get their money by slipping in uber-restrictive laws to control how we use media, screwing up our personal electronic devices, and by suing our asses one by one. For more info on the industry's interpretation of customer service, check out Kenzo's guide to the Sony DRM debacle.

Read the DCPA proposal here (PDF), and then check out this excellent analysis of its implications. If that got you riled up, visit the EFF's action page (here you can send a letter in opposition of the DCPA, if your state happens to have a senator on the committee: AK, AZ, AR, CA, FL, HI, LA, MA, ME, MS, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, ND, OR, SC, TX, VA, WA, WV). And there is a glimmer of hope: the last time this broadcast flag issue wiggled past the FCC decisionmakers, the EFF/PK's subsequent lawsuit was instrumental in the courts overturning the decision.  Links via Boing Boing

UPDATE: Alex kindly points us toward PK's wrap-up of the hearing, along with the official statement PK submitted to the Senate Commerce Committee. The RIAA's fear of technology and understanding of digital media really lights up when you read this quote from another article covering the hearing:

Mitch Bainwol, head of the RIAA, told the Senate that the issue is "not casual recording by listeners. It is not taping off the radio like we used to do. We are talking about allowing broadcast programs to be automatically captured and then disaggregated, song by song, into a massive library of music."

... yeah, a massive library of low-quality sounding music. Anyone who is capable of bothering with song-capture technology would probably rather just buy a CD: the bit-rate for the new HD radio is a pathetic 64 k in the main channel and 32 k in the side channel (though this isn't entirely comparable to MP3 bit-rates, mark Station Manager Ken's words... the sound quality will be far worse than analog FM).

On a positive note, one of the broadcast flag's main champion, Senator Ted Stevens,  seemed crestfallen upon learning that he wouldn't be able to record a song off the radio and copy it to his iPod.

Comments

[norelpref]

Just astonishing. The unbridled arrogance of these corporate pimps. First, selling us at best ersatz programming (which is repeated over and over ad nauseum), then seeking to restrict our ability to record it? These evil fucks should be downright FLATTERED that anyone would want to record their largely insipid, shitty content. In fact, THEY should be paying US to view the slop. The only way I've found to make their excrement palatable is to sample it, remix it, vivisect it, reformulate it into something actually COMPELLING, something meaningful, at least to my sensoria (your mileage may vary).

But then, man, what will I do if I can't have the opportunity to watch the remake of Starsky and Hutch over and over and over.....Lately the only tv listing that's given me any hope (albeit a false one) is "Pauly Shore is Dead." (but not in a neat, syllogistic concrete reality sort of way, the one that might provide some satisfaction).

[Alex]

I just posted an update to today's hearing on the Broadcast and Audio Flag. You can find it here:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/100

For the record, although the libraries and the EFF were critical parties, Public Knowledge financed and coordinated the case against the FCC that struck down the broadcast flag.

[poesboes]

And i still keep wondering about the flipside of the coin. All those great CDs i bought; that i heard of first on WFMU! From a commercial point of view music on radio is like an ongoing free commercial. Free to the record industry that is.
Ohh... Forget it... It gives me a headache.

[DigitalDjigit]

Why doesn't the electronic industry stand up for itself? It has many times the revenue of those entertainment industry losers. Surely they can afford some lawyers/lobbyists.

[DigitalDjigit]

Oh, I forgot that Sony is one of the biggest entertainment companies there is.