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RIAA Trying to Copy-Protect Radio
doctorfaustus writes "The EFF is reporting that "the RIAA has been pushing the FCC to impose a copy-protection mandate on the makers of next-generation digital radio receiver/recorders (think TiVo-for-radio)." According to Mike Godwin, "Never mind that digital audio broadcasting is not significantly greater in quality than regular, analog radio. Never mind that its music quality is vastly less than than that of audio CDs. In spite of these inconvenient facts, the RIAA is hoping that the transition to "digital audio broadcasting" will provide enough confusion and panic that they can persuade Congress or the FCC to impose some kind of copy-protection scheme or regulation on digital radio broadcast." "
In other news, the RIAA is pushing the FCC for copy-protection on vocal cords.
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shoot RIAA, and take them out of our misery.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
From Ronald Eagleye, our on the spot reporter, Fenwick Finster was apprehended while recording FM radio broadcasts on his digital video camera at the public swimming pool, after RIAA informers tipped off police. Finster claimed it was clearly a misunderstanding, though he refused to explain why he was in the women's locker room with the video camera under his trenchcoat.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I ran tens of thousands of dollars of radio ads this year for my retail stores (focused on 10-22 year olds). Few people heard them.
Why? Radio is dead or dying for most younger people. All my employees under 21 podcast or listen to playlists. The RIAA doesn't really have any idea what they're chasing. Putting a Band-Aid on a corpse is useless.
I'm not fan of music piracy (I used to run a warez pirate BBS 15 years back) anymore. Why? There is nothing worth pirating. The radio doesn't appeal to the market that likes that music. People used to go to concerts, too, but my last concert was $95/ticket for an fairly-unknown electronica band -- the crowd was thin.
Let them DRM everything valuable to them. I'm fine with it! I have no desire to bootleg what I can afford to buy if it pleases me enough. I'll continue to go to $8 Indie bar shows, buy the bands' $10 CDs and $10 T-shirts, and ignore my car radio. My house hasn't had a radio for 10 years.
As it gets harder for consumers to consume, they switch to something easier. I feel bad for record shops and radio ad sales people. The end is coming, but they don't see it.
As for quality, who cares? Radio-friendly music is already fidelity-free from excessive compression, gating, and over mastering. Even my MP3'd music is only 96k, my noise floor in the car and outside that I don't mind the loss of resolution.
Don't hate the RIAA, they're already not a concern. It's like hating VHS Macrovision.
ClearChannel has the patent on this, by airing music not worth copying in the first place.
"My ears! The earmuffs do nothing!"
Ok, I have no motivation whatsoever right now to adopt any new form of radio, and this further demotivates me.
These people keep thinking they can control everything that we think, do, or say. When the founders of the USA wrote the bill of rights and drafted our first laws, they had no intention whatsoever that they would be abused this way.
Software patents? Now I cannot program an application that is an interface for presenting and displaying playback information on a portable device because microsoft owns the patent? Come on. Lame.
Music? I'm sorry, but I have no realistic alternative to buying the CD if I want to listen to music. Radio sucks (ok, the commercials more than anything else), and I have no good reason to pay 99 cents for a song on iTunes. I, for one, like the pretty box.
I have no doubt that HDTV might have been pushed forth a lot sooner if anyone settled on a standard. Instead, they've been debating the different ways to present the media, and most recently the biggest qualm is with the feared broadcast flag. If it weren't for things like broadcast flag, I'm sure I could have been watching Sonic SatAM in HD 12 years ago.
Need another point? BluRay or HD-DVD? Nope. The biggest debate I've seen is piracy control. Encryption schemes, manufacturing processes, etc. The studios are leaning away from HD-DVD because they basically utilize the same technology as existing DVDs, but BluRay didn't have the must have CSS (Consumer Screwed Severely) version 2.0.
Bloody hell. Instead of promoting innovation, this system promotes stagnation. I for one, am sick and tired of it. And anyone who questions that... I'd like to point out that, while aural recording techniques have dramatically improved over the past 20 years, we're still using the same basic late 70s/early 80s tech to record most of the world's CDs. I know there's nothing wrong with the proven tech, but why do CDs still run $16 a pop?
Deja Vu
n. 1. The sensation that you've read this very article before.
My wife is a big country fan. She has gotten me hooked on one of our local radio stations. It is a small town station that is sometimes hard to pick up but it is well worth it.
They actually like music at that station!
Not only that but they are part of the community. They have a show called DialnDeal every morning where people call in to sell and buy stuff and they broadcast the local high school games football games.
Even the ads are not annoying. They are for local stores and they also seem like part of the community. Clear Channel is what is killing radio. The small town stations that are still independent can still be gems.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.