IP Democracy: Audio Broadcast Flag Bill Introduced

Representative Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) introduced a bill yesterday that would enforce a broadcast flag for digital and satellite radio. The bill would give the FCC authority to enforce “prohibitions against unauthorized copying and redistribution.”

What’s particularly irksome about the bill, The Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006 (H.R. 4861), is that it would create a new category under copyright law — “customary use.” The bill would limit audio content access to uses that are “customary;” the law today allows consumers a certain amount of access to content under a concept known as “fair use.”

By limiting usage to what has been customary, the bill could make illegal new uses made possible by technology.

As usual, Cory Doctorow has some choice words for this bill:

Fergusun is committing political suicide. No constituent of Fergusun’s woke up this morning wishing for a way to do less with her radio. There’s no manufacturer who can sell more radios by advertising “Now! With fewer features!” This is a bill to steal from tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, who’ll never get to invent the next generation of awesome music tech, in order to line the pockets of yesterday’s recording industry fatcats.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 3, 2006 8:19 AM to IP Democracy