Recording industry demands digital radio broadcast flag

Well, this was pretty predictable. The recording industry is pushing the feds to impose a broadcast flag for digital radio. They've been making noises about this for some time, arguing that no one should be allowed to make a digital radio tuner unless the recording industry approves it, because hell, why shouldn't the guy who releases a record have a veto over the design of the record player? (Oh yeah, it's because they always freak out and demand that new devices do nothing more than old devices, and often try to make devices that do less than their predecessors).

Remember: any lawmaker who breaks her constituents' entertainment technologies don't get re-elected. Make sure your representative is well-briefed on this fact.

Never mind that digital audio broadcasting is not significantly greater in quality than regular, analog radio. Never mind that its music quality is vastly less than than that of audio CDs. In spite of these inconvenient facts, the RIAA is hoping that the transition to "digital audio broadcasting" will provide enough confusion and panic that they can persuade Congress or the FCC to impose some kind of copy-protection scheme or regulation on digital radio broadcast.

Immediately below is the text of the joint resolution by RIAA and other groups, asking Congress to copy-protect radio (which has never been copy-protected before). Following that is RIAA's "one-pager" outlining for Congress the reasons RIAA offers for Congress to authorize the FCC to put in place a copy-protection scheme for radio. (Note the use of the term "HD Radio" -- implying that there's something "high-definition" about digital audio broadcasting, even though everyone who knows anything about digital audio broadcast content knows it's of much lower quality than that of audio CDs.)

Link (via Deep Links)