Political Bloviation

Copy Protection Coming to (Digital) Radio?

This is horrible policy that attempts to enshrine in law the concept of “customary use.”

In essence, instead of allowing “fair use,” which is a forward-looking concept that enables a user to reasonably access a certain amount of content under certain conditions, “customary use” would make any new technological feature by its very definition a tool of copyright infringement. Moreover, the FCC would have the power to determine if a new feature falls into the “customary use” category. As EFF points out

That mean new uses are not allowed, unless approved by the FCC. I can’t think of a better way to stifle technical innovation. The point of this is to protect the RIAA from the “evils” of people recording off the air. It allows their lobbyists a crack at killing off any innovation they deem a threat to their business model. They have deep pockets and we have congressional representatives too willing to do their dirty work for sufficient quid pro quo.

The RIAA presented a laundry list of requests they filed with the FCC on this issue in 2004:

* Receivers may only record or permit recording of covered content: (a) in direct and immediate response to a consumer pressing a record button; (b) based on a date and time preprogrammed by the consumer.

* Preprogrammed recordings shall be for a minimum period of 30 minutes in duration.

* A replay buffer may be used to initiate a recording of a previously broadcast transmission provided that the buffer does not exceed 30 minutes in duration.

* Each recording of covered content shall be stored and retrieved as a singe continuous session and may not be divided into recordings of individual songs on an automated or non-automated basis using ID information or audio characteristics.

* The application of these usage rules to covered content shall be stored and associated in a robust manner with any recordings of such covered content.

* ID information shall be recorded only in a manner that effectively limits its use to display during simultaneous audio playback.

* No recording device shall record covered content based on ID information.

* All recordings of covered content must employ robust encryption methods to bind and limit playback to the recording device.

* Playback of covered content shall be solely on a session basis and shall not be linked in any way to ID information.

* Playback of covered content shall be at normal speed (defined as within 10% of the speed at which the content was originally recorded). Playback may skip forward and backward at higher speeds within the recorded session without playing any sound provided that no skipping, either forward or backward, shall be permitted to the beginning or end of a song using ID information.

They want to prevent time shifting of content, commercial skipping and they don’t want the ID infomation used to seek and record particular content. If these rules are forced on an unsuspecting public they will be cracked in the first week.

There’s no justification to change the rules to protect their business model. Regardless of what means of distribution are used artists will still want to create and the public will still want to enjoy content. There is no real issue with the willingness to pay for good content. We need to create payment systems that directly benefit artists, rather than punishing consumers.

The real problem is that technological developments are squeezing out the middle men. It’s become easier than ever to create and distribute your own content over the internet, without the publishers, distributors and other assorted middlemen. This is what they fear. They aren’t necessary, why do we pay them again?

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