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June 21, 2005
48 hours to kill the 'Broadcast Flag'
Hollywood's pet agency, the FCC, couldn't get the job done. Hollywood wanted the FCC to completely take over your computer, your Tivo, DishPlayer, Radio, MP3 player, DVD burner, basically everything in your house that requires electricity except for the toaster, so that it would be impossible to copy songs, movies, tv shows, radio broadcasts, or any other form of media they could think of. Unfortunately, even though the FCC is so deep in the pockets of the companies they're supposed to be regulating(a textbook case of "agency capture"), they couldn't get the job done because the Supreme Court handed the FCC their walking papers about a month ago, saying that, no matter how thoroughly in debt they felt to the interests they were supposed to be regulating, they had, in fact, overstepped their legal authority by a considerable margin.
Now, it's widely rumored that the Media Moguls are going to do an end run around the FCC and shove the "Broadcast Flag" into a massive appropriations piece of pork that's scheduled to be voted on in this Thursday (June 23rd), according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF). Fortunately, the EFF has an Action Alert where you can just fill in your name and address, and it will email your appropriate resentatives automatically. It's simple. Just put in your name and address, customize the email message (if you choose to), and hit submit. It automatically looks up your representatives based on your zip code and sends them your little nasty-gram. Do it now, or you won't be able to record shows on your Tivo or VCR any more. This is no joke. Big Brother is at the gate.
Posted by Peenie Wallie on June 21, 2005 at 9:30 AM