https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?JS ... ion&id=205
Hollywood Plants Its Flags In Our Homes
On Tuesday January 24th, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings on the government regulation of digital media in the form of the broadcast flag, and the audio flag. But even before the committee hears the arguments, Hollywood lobbyists have already planned the results. Drafts are being passed around Congress by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) of a "Digital Content Protection Act" that would make both flags laws at a stroke.
If this bill were to pass, government - and the entertainment industry - would control what you could do with digital media in your home. The broadcast flag would place TV shows in a DRM ghetto, where your right to copy, back-up, sell, time-shift or convert them into formats convenient to you would be at the whim of the broadcasters. The audio flag would give the FCC matching powers over "digital audio broadcasting," including satellite radio, digital HD radio, and potentially even Internet radio. Fair use would be frozen into "customary historical use".
There's no benefit here for artists or customers, and for infringing copiers, evading these copy controls will be as easy as ever. No matter how inconvenienced individual users would be by a flag, pirates would be able to bypass it. The bill would usher in a new world of anti-consumer electronics, and a chance for the MPAA's and RIAA's member companies to seize even greater control over all media distribution and use.
If you're in the states below, your senator is on the Senate Commerce Committee. Let him or her know that these flags would mark a new era of Hollywood's control of the home and of our digital networks.
You have a senator on the committee if you are a resident of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachussetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South, Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, or West Virginia.
(Hat tip Hit and Run ( http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/2006/01 ... tml#012339 ))