* Action Alert: Stop the RIAA's Radio Interference!

Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) has introduced a bill which, if
passed, would hog-tie digital radio forever. It's called the
"Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006," H.R. 4861, and
it demands that new radio designs obey a remarkably limited,
backward-looking vision of the future.

The Audio Broadcast Flag would force innovators to work to
the RIAA's specifications, putting in government-mandated
locks and DRM to prevent any possible "unauthorized" copying
on their new digital radio sets. That's not merely banning
copying that is already unlawful. The new bill would ban any
use that copyright holders don't explicitly authorize
beforehand.

So what would "authorized" home radio recording look like?
Previous drafts and RIAA comments to the FCC give an idea.
There would be no automatic recording in the RIAA's world --
recordings could only be made if a human presses the button
or sets the set to record at a specific time. No broadcast
could be recorded for less than 30 minutes (that's right,
your manual record button would jam in the "on" position
until half an hour has passed in order to assure that you're
not recording single songs). You wouldn't be able to fast-
forward with sound or skip directly to particular songs
either.

This will send radio backwards in time, at just the moment
when it was about to enter a new age. You can forget about a
radio TiVo ever happening. The RIAA would ban any such
innovation. It would be radio their way.

The RIAA has no right to dictate to the American people what
the future of broadcasting and technological innovation
should be. And the FCC is there to protect us from radio
interference, not to become a tool of the RIAA's
interference with our home recording rights. Tell your
lawmakers to stop the audio flag.

Write to your representatives now:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=216

For EFF's initial analysis of the bill:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004445.php

Learn more about the proposed audio flag:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/?f=digitalradioflag.html

Sent my letter to my representative just now.

"No broadcast could be recorded for less than 30 minutes"

What is this? A challenge? Not a very tough one, if it is.

"This will send radio backwards in time, at just the moment when it was about to enter a new age."

Because God knows, we're all a-twitter over the ability to get hi-def commercials. I don't know which is the greater fantasy -- the one where they can stop recording, or the one where there is anything on the radio worth recording.

"a remarkably limited, backward-looking vision of the future"

This also describes my representative. Every time I write to him, he writes back to say he doesn't care what anyone thinks.

As soon as I get a response from the bozo that's representing me here in Pennsylvania, I will post it in the forum . . . unless it's a stupid-assed form letter and I'll tell you as such.

I sent my letter.