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RIAA Protests Digital Radio
prostoalex writes "Afraid that digital radio listeners might soon be able to cherry-pick certain songs and share them with others on the Internet, RIAA urged FCC to consider broadcast regulations that limit such copying. The National Association of Broadcasters is not too happy with RIAA's request, as more than three hundred broadcasters either have digital CD-quality radio, or are in the process of setting them up. Meanwhile, as MSNBC notes, products like The Bug from Pure Digital are already capable of recording digital radio."
Wake up RIAA, your customer base isn't happy with you. Stop doing idiotic crap to piss it off.
Ever hear of taping a song off the radio. A lot of people do it.
Git off ma fair use before aye shoot ya.
Let the RIAA complain all they want-it will not get them anywhere anyway....Personally, I don't think the NAB would let this fly
There are other ways to get around this (casettes, radio to line-in, etc - and watch out, they'll want to ban obsolete hardware next) and the RIAA can really do little to stop it...Another RIAA attempt to stifle pirates, terrorists, and baby-killers, and innovation as well, all in the name of saving their bottom line
My MythTV HowTo
why dont they outlaw the speaker. After all, anything that comes out of a speaker can be recorded and reproduced without limitations.
So what comes next? we can only look at a shiny new CD instead of playing? but wait, looking at a disc can give people the opportunity to memorize the bit patterns and recreate it. Your eyes oppose the DMCA. gouge them out... quick
No, you see, that would be innovation. The RIAA isn't a company that comes out with products, it's an association of old-school record companies trying to protect their old-school business model.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Why are the RIAA kicking up about this now? Wouldn't it have caused alot less hassle if they had mentioned their concerns to the FCC before the broadcasters spent wads of cash implementing digital radio schemes?
Seems to me like they are just trying to make enemies of everyone. But then again, this comes from the industry that has spent the last couple decades screwing over its customers, its clients,its business associates and other entities within the industry.
Wonder if Mrs Rosen went to the same business college as Bill and Daryl? ;)
She's built like a steak house, but she handles like a bistro....
would it take for it to be hacked and used as a free music CD generator? :)
They don't have to. Singing in public is already legal infringement (as is playing a radio), but that falls under the auspices of ASCAP and BMI.
The lawyers have divided up the turf between themselves and singing isn't on the RIAAs turf.
KFG
Regarding Stern; first, I don't really see what this has to do with the RIAA (granted, censorship is censorship, but the motivation for censoring Stern is quite different from that of the RIAA). Stern's case, if anything, is quite a bit worse; where the RIAA is hampering people through an abuse of the civil court system, the FCC is actually using government-granted power to clamp down on him.
Also, you mention that he's gone, but he's still got an audience of millions. Clear Channel was not the only network carrying him, and as long as he has fans, he'll have a broadcaster, I think.
That would be stupid. It'd have no advantage over something like iTunes, and you'd have to wait for the song to come on (which could be a long time if you're not looking for one of the five most popular singles).
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
CD quality? I'd be happy if my radio produced FM quality. The typical American broadcaster takes a nice, clean audio signal and then proceeds to mutilate it beyond recognition with a "modulation optimizer" before feeding it to the transmitter. These devices ensure that the transmitter is run at 100% modulation, or greater, all the time, in every audio band. The result is badly distorted audio without the slightest trace of dynamic range. If they will not broadcast a clean FM signal, why should we expect them to broadcast a clean digital signal?
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Remember Digital Audio Tape? Wanna go buy one?
Look at what the DMCA is doing to reverse engineering.
Look at what's being discussed to close the 'analog hole'.
Our nation is sacrificing it's technological competitiveness in the name of the entertainment industries. We have already sacrificed a LOT, though it's still reversible.
One of my Senators is Patrick Leahy, and maybe it's time for me to become a single-issue voter. His response to my last letter on this was not satisfactory, I need to try again - well before November.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Your system relies on two groups (consumers and artists) behaving well and selflessly. There's no evidence that either one will actually do so.
The comment about fears of "cherry-picking" songs probably tells more about the industry's real fears than they intended. Their biggest fear, I think, isn't simply about piracy (which can always be fought as a crime) but that listeners will become accustomed to listen to what they want, when they want. The existing structure of the music industry depends on using the radio and favorable product placement to boost certain artists; that's why those artists are willing to sign such unfavorable contracts. If the people in charge of the music industry lose control of popular taste, they're finished no matter what else happens.
The RIAA Sucks.
You know that, I know that, Cowboyneal knows it, and pretty much everyone who frequents this site knows it. It's plain and simple, they are out to defend an old Cartel-like system, only because it continues to line their pockets with billions of dollars each year.
Unfortunetly, we are still sitting here reading yet another article of hundreds on how the RIAA sucks, and everyone is saying how outrageous it is, "their just going to destroy all music next!" is a common thread. I'm sure most of us haven't even read the story (shocker **insert a gasp here**). The problem is, what is this doing to fix the problem which is now un-deniable.
Sites like downhillbattle and all of its siblings propose large scale sweeping plans to topple the RIAA cartel. I am a muscian and the number one problem with these great plans of creating a larger "indie" scene, and having artists distribute their own songs over the internet, and getting artists to sign with Non-RIAA companies all require a public, both the artists and the consumers to be informed. As one person mentioned "The RIAA's consumer base is a bunch of stupid kids who buy...", it is not the geeks/nerds/"l33t" who support the RIAA, it is every person who goes to the store, any store and buys a CD. How innocent of a thing is this, yet it is all the RIAA needs to continue in its dominance, NO MATTER WHAT HATRED they are recieving from the few informed. They will not succumb to pressure, there is too much money involved. If we are able to take the message to the masses, and the masses hear it, understand it, accept it, and then chose to change their behaviors because of it, we can choke the RIAA off to the point where they are insignificant. And then trully there has been a solution, an end all end all. Music can then become about a communication between an artist and its audience again, and I'm sure no one can disagree that once to RIAA is removed, it is at least a step in the right direction.
What's another word for Thesaurus?
-Steve Wright
While the NAB doesn't exactly have the best interests of you and me in mind, the RIAA's desire to regulate every single intersection of music and commerce might cause the NAB to recognize that if they espouse the cause of less restrictive copyright, they could gain tremendous political and economic benefit.
Then again, the NAB might simply form some kind of cooperative scheme with the RIAA. But I don't think that's a foregone conclusion. Look at the good will IBM has generated by fighting SCO. Sure, IBM was forced into it by a suicidal Darl McBride, but others are likely watching how much goodwill IBM is garnering by their actions in the SCO/Linux struggle.
I know, profits are more powerful than goodwill, but goodwill can lead to profits. Maybe the NAB will grok this and take the fight to the RIAA.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
It's pretty simple. If it is audible to the human ear, it is audible to a Shure SM58 wired to a high-falootin' sound card - or for the low budget, a condensor mic on a portable tape recorder. It's simple physics, and to misquote Scotty, ye canna change the laws o' physics by passin' laws in the legislation.
This sig no verb.
I've had XM for over a year and listen daily in the car. The reason I got XM was because I absolutely hate the junk that is heard in Clearchanel dominated market I live in.
Not once have I thought of recording anything from XM. Since most XM radios have line outputs for amplifiers, it would be easy to plug in a laptop and record to wav or even mp3 with no problem. This article put the idea in my head, courtesy of the RIAA. Good job guys.
I've bought quite a few CD's from "new" artists that I actually had a chance to hear on XM. XM definately helps the labels sell more CD's since Clearchanel doesn't play what the public wants to hear anymore.
The few decent artists that are played to death on broadcast radio don't seem worth the $15 to buy. Hell, I could hear the same song every time I turn on the radio anyway. But the ones that I hear on XM are new and aren't jammed down my throat. I WANT to buy the CD's. Nobody feels good ripping off the underdog artists, but we all write off the radio artists as the enemy, thus they are exploitable.
The RIAA seems to want control over which artists are popular more than they want money from listeners. In any other business, the stockholders would have voted out anyone who repeatedly made such bad decisions. It just makes no sense.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
We're geeks, right? We're the sorcerers of the modern-day world. Without us, nothing happens and no-one works.
The RIAA can try this all they like, but if they succeed in getting the restrictions they want, we'll break them, we'll show others how to break them and we'll pirate the content out over the web just to make sure they learn that if they fuck with us they'll get hurt.
There's a lesson pending for the RIAA, and its this. Our rights as consumers are not up for renegotiation, and we don't want our rights to be protected (enforced) by expensive and unreliable DRM. RIAA, you can accept this, or you can pay up for the technology only to see us painlessely circumvent it. We will not be governed by you. That's not the way it works
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
OT but Howard Stern gets dropped from Clear Channel because he is critical of Bush's War on Iraq. Clear Channel happens to like Bush. So they drop Stern from all stations that carry him, which was six.
This is not a first amendment issue. The bill of rights protects you from the government, not your asshat employeer. And office politics is a major issue that you have to juggle in a career.
In short, this isn't government censorship. Clear Channel didn't like what Stern was saying so he gets dropped. I don't think there is anything wrong with this scenario at least as far as the government is involved.
But as far as this High-Quality broadcast user rip stuff. I'm pretty sure it is legal as long as you don't redistribute. Of course, the RIAA wants restrictions, but I don't think they will get them. I really hate to see crippled technologies to unsuccessfully prevent illegal use. I wish they would just concentrate on enforcement. If that means suing 13 year-olds so be it. People bitch when they get busted, but everybody bitches when they get caught, just watch COPS some time.
To unsuccessfully prevent potential flames, forget about the information wants to be free stuff. We have copyright. Yes, copyright is broken right now and needs to be fixed. But that doesn't give you the right to copy the newest Linkin Park track from your friend. Even if you hate the RIAA and know the artists don't get much of the money. It is still illegal and you are being a bad citizen.
Fin
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -Homer Simpson
The radio stations should stop playing RIAA songs altogether and see how many they sell then.
People's desire to believe they are right is much stronger than their desire to be right.
That'd require some mega-DRM - the digital broadcast would have to be encrypted to prevent unauthorized radios from "pirating" songs. I don't really think we want the RIAA getting into the radio business, they've fucked up the CD business enough as it is.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
That just simply wouldn't work as it would be effective suicide for the radio stations. What, precisely, would be left to play? fifty year old yodelling tapes? The consumers expect that stuff.
Listening == advertising == money for the radio station.
Eventually someone would come along who *was* willing to play RIAA stuff, and he'd be rich, because he'd be able to sell advertising again, because people would be listening -- unlike the guys with the yodelling tapes.
Unfortunately the great masses of people out there really do appear to want to hear the music, don't know/care about artist compensation, that other music is being made, nor would they care if it's not Brittany Spears.
It's like a lot of things in current North American culture -- some of us think it's just complete dreck (ie all 'reality' shows) but if the great shopping public tunes in, it stays on the air, because they can sell the advertising for more money.
Except for some college-radio type stuff, you can't exactly walk away from the RIAA's music and expect the public to listen. (At least here in North America, hopefully people outside of North America can get better access to non-RIAA stuff.)
Unfortunately when the RIAA (or MPAA) move to block technology like this, while it gets us riled up, the average person on the street doesn't know about it and might need a small bit of background information to understand the issue and why they should care.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I truly wanted to write something insightful about this story. I wanted to make a logical balanced statement about why the RIAA is simply wrong and will eventually die due to their own greed. I wanted to write something that would illuminate and entertain and was suitable for all age groups to read.
Unfortunately I couldn't do that. Every time I now think about the RIAA and whatever approach they are currently trying to keep their grip on the fat cash they make screwing over the artist, customer, and anyone else who gets in the way I can only ever think of two words.
"Fuck Them"
So that's my post. Don't be too hard on me mods because I tried. Maybe I've seen one too many RIAA stories or something but those four letters just draw one response from me at this point and that was it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.