Audio Broadcast Flag legislation could ban home recording

Posted Mar 3rd 2006 3:41PM by Marc Perton
Engadget

It may have been a while since we've heard anything new from Congress about the Broadcast Flag's radio counterpart, the Audio Flag, but rest assured, your elected representatives haven't stopped thinking about it. And the latest incarnation of the law, the Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006, H.R. 4861, is a bill you might want to actually give a perusal. Turns out that, when it comes to digital radio, the bill basically takes away any "fair use" rights you might have assumed you had, and lets the record industry decide what you can and can't do with your radio. Want to record a radio show so you can listen to it later? Sorry, not unless the record industry says you can. Want to tape a couple of songs, so you can listen to them again before deciding whether to buy them? Forget about it. In fact, the law as written would require manufacturers to get FCC approval if they wanted to include recording functions in their digital radios. Of course, this is still just a bill, yes, it's only a bill, which means there's time to make some changes. And, as we've seen, there are at least some Senators who have doubts about giving the record industry even more control over what we can and can't listen to. Maybe teaching them all how to use an iPod isn't such a bad idea after all.

Maybe buying the whole gang Ipods or other MP3 player incarnations might be a good investment.

"there are at least some Senators who have doubts about giving the record industry even more control" etc

Wow.... "at least" some have "doubts"?
Does that mean of n Senators, n - some are okay with giving control to those guys?

Yeah, like I'm gonna' rush out to record scrap on sat. radio. Flip that... I think I'll *stick* to net radio. (Don't listen to FM radio, so why would I start PAYING to listen to sat. radio?)

Pay more and get less. Yeah that business model will work.

I've never trusted Sat radio, FM and AM doesn't come in where I live, and what's going on now shows why, with the slippin' in of commercials. There's too much good Internet radio out there anyways. There's no way for the Industry to kill Internet radio really, cuz they pop up like flies on fresh something. Then there are the Podcasts, and things get rediculous. Forgive my spelling. I burned myself roasting a turkey. (A real turkey from the supermarket LOL)

Re: "there are at least some Senators who have doubts about giving the record industry even more control. . ."

Some, but maybe not enough.
Many of the ones who don't mind giving more control to the music conglomerates also don't mind accepting juicy political contributions from them. (What a coincidence that is!)

Lobbying should be banned; it's unethical and works against democratic principles.

"Audio Broadcast Flag legislation could ban home recording."

Meanwhile, our boycott continues (against recording, downloading, and purchasing RIAA music)!

I was watching public knowledg's founder Gigo? or Gigi... I forget which debate this the other night on cspan. Very interesting. She doesn't believe in it anymore so then I do. And I'd suspect the rest of you don't like it either.

The record industry needs less control, not more. They've abused what control they already have.

As a side note, since were discussing radio... I thought I'd give a shoutout to an Internet radio group I dj with... In fact, I'll be on the air this evening if you'd like to tune in.

www.ircradionetwork.com

We play all kinds of things, some riaa, some not riaa. If you'd like to change the playlist, come chat! Make requests.. etc.

Thanks!

If the Jay Bennish imbroglio is of any indication, one can imagine the consequences of this H.R. 4861 should it be enacted. This has nothing to do with "copyright protection" or "combatting piracy," but rather would be so broad-based that it would also entail outlawing of home recording of, say, news broadcasts or other programming (i.e. talk radio), so that if someone on one or more of the alphabet networks says or does something that is so openly biased that you could drive a truck through it, you could no longer prove it and the liberal-leftist media would once again be able to portray it as a "we-said - they-said" situation.

But back to Bennish: As you all know, Sean Allen, the high-school student who recorded Bennish's anti-American, Bush-hating rants in the "geography" class he was "teaching," used an MP3 recorder/player to preserve Bennish's indoctrination for all to hear. Could you imagine what would've happened if the RIAA had succeeded, G-d forbid, in outlawing MP3 way back when?