A Leaner DSL Bill Introduced

Mansing writes: "A somewhat toned version of Billy "Baby Bell" Tauzin's Telecommunications Bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate. It is the same bill without the long distance provisions. Better for the Baby Bells, not better for the independent DSL providers."

Comments

not lean enough, IMO

[Anonymous Coward]

The best and in fact only way to properly free up the telecom and ISP industries is, IMHO, to abolish the FCC. It is a holdover from the days of the government-enforced AT&T monopoly, and should be abandoned as the relic it is. Hasn't Congress through the FCC done enough to stifle the free exchange of ideas?

Re:not lean enough, IMO

[Yottabyte84]

If it weren't for the FCC anyone could broadcast with whatever power they saw fit, and that would destroy pretty much all communications.

Didn't you read the EULA?

[scaryjohn]

It appears subliminally whenever the TV-rating appears on screen. If you run the broadcast signal through a polarity modulator, you can make it out if you interlace the frames, rotate it 270 degrees, and invert it black for white.

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

<SNIP instructions to read it carefully...>

1. GRANT OF LICENSE: Subject to the terms below, Turner Broadcasting, a division of AOL-Time Warner hereby grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to view this VHF broadcast or cable or sattelite transmission ('Program') without cost, in exchange for the requirement of viewing interstitial commercial messages ('Advertisments').

<SNIP what you are allowed to do...>

Whether you are licensing the Program as an individual or on behalf of an entity, you may not: (i) rewind, replay at slow-motion, or make unauthorized use of Closed Captioning to attempt to transcribe the script; (ii) re-edit, or create derivative works based upon the Program in whole or in part without the express written consent of Turner Broadcasting, a division of AOL-Time Warner; (iii) distribute copies of the Program; (iv) remove any Advertisments or labels on the Program; (v) resell, lease, rent, transfer, sublicense, or otherwise transfer rights to the Program; (vi) leave the presence of the television during advertisments, change the channel broadcast on the television, or in any other way ignore the Advertisements.

And it goes on from there...

Re:Didn't you read the EULA?

[scaryjohn]

WTF? This isn't the story i tried to post this comment to. I tried to post it to the one about the guy at Turner saying that all PVR-commercial stripping is theft, but apparently that story's temporarily disappeared.

Re:Didn't you read the EULA?

[digitalunity]

Great. Senator Hollings is in charge of the Senate Commerce Committe. We're fucked now. New licensce:

You may not tape this broadcast for time-delay or time-shift purposes. You may not view it more than once. Any device built to circumvent the commercial advertisements will land you in jail for 30 years. Coaxial cable splitters are now circumvention devices and are thusly illegal. Every television in your house must now be licensed on a per-TV basis. All televisions will promptly self destruct if there are more than one person sitting in front of it. Licensing will be payed on a per-person basis. All new TV's will have integral credit card scanners as well as the ability to directly debit your checking account or EFT your life savings away for watching a movie or two. The option to donate to Sen. Hollings reelection will of course be provided, and will be the default selection.

And, the apathetic americans will laugh and pay the Hollings tax to the MPAA; not even realizing what has happened. In fact, history will be rewritten to make future generations think it's ok because "That's the way it's always been".

Why do senators feel the need to be controversial? And why do they feel the need to 'stimulate our economy'? Our industry is just fine, thank you very much.

Re:Didn't you read the EULA?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you hear about the guy that turn on his tv set so often that it turn on him?

IP BLACKOUT. DON'T BUY IP.

Abolishing FCC isn't the answer

[wberry]

I don't think completely doing away with the FCC is a good answer either. The FCC does some good things for consumers; for example, the requirements that electronics accept interference and not interfere with other devices. If it wasn't for the FCC, then 100MHz motherboards would drown out the 99X radio station (99.7 MHz) here in Atlanta, or maybe the vacuum cleaner would cause every other piece of electronics in my apartment to stop working, or something.

Granted, the free market could solve most of the problems that destroying the FCC would create. But some important problems it could not solve, like if the corporate office down the street had microwave transmitters at dangerous levels.

One thing I think is a good idea is for Congress to mandate opening up the AM, FM, UHF, and VHF bands to unrestricted status. If you want a transmitter, and you can afford to power the sucker (a 10KW radio transmitter would cost about $2500/month to power in Atlanta), go for it. Radio Anarchy baby. Or at the very least, open up UHF. I mean, how many people actually broadcast on UHF any more? Everybody uses cable now.

But even then, keeping the FCC around would be a good thing. Emergency services (police, fire, medical) should have some protected spectra to use for their radios, and it should be criminal to interfere with those bands in my opinion.