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Amendment To Kill Broadcast and Audio Flags
Bruce Perens writes "Senator John Sununu is proposing an amendment, H.R.5252, to strike both the broadcast flag and the radio flag from this year's U.S. telecommunications bill.
If the amendment does not pass, we will be faced with mandatory DRM in video and audio devices, and with a prohibition on the use of Open Source software for such devices (because it can be modified to remove DRM). Time is short, the committee markup of the telecommunication bill is proceeding now in Washington and it's important to show your Congressperson that there is constituent support to remove the broadcast and audio flags. Please see the alert and please use the information there to call your Congressperson today."
If the amendment does not pass, we will be faced with mandatory DRM in video and audio devices, and with a prohibition on the use of Open Source software for such devices (because it can be modified to remove DRM). Time is short, the committee markup of the telecommunication bill is proceeding now in Washington and it's important to show your Congressperson that there is constituent support to remove the broadcast and audio flags. Please see the alert and please use the information there to call your Congressperson today."
If you are a US Citizen, if you want to influence your Congresscritter,
it's probably best to write if you can rather then call.
As snail mail takes a long time to get to DC and must be scanned and disinfected, etc,
I find that writing a letter and faxing it to the Congresscritter's office is the best
way to proceed.
Of course, if you can't get the fax off right away, a call is better then nothing.
Senator Barbara Boxer of California's fax# is 213-894-5042
Of course, your mileage may vary.
Have a good Field Day
73 de Peter
Peter AI6PG
I think you may be mistaken. The bill is in committee. I expect it's in the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
see http://thomas.loc.gov/
According to thomas.loc.gov
There are 4 versions of Bill Number H.R.5252 for the 109th Congress
1 . Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (Introduced in House)[H.R.5252.IH]
2 . Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (Reported in House)[H.R.5252.RH]
3 . Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)[H.R.5252.EH]
4 . Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (Referred to Senate Committee after being Received from House)[H.R.5252.RFS]
Peter AI6PG
That's precisely what I was saying. The submitter's verbiage suggests that Sununu's ammendment is called H.R. 5252, whereas he would be submitting ammendments to H.R. 5252 (in committee).
The description is incredibly unclear on that point.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
H.R. 5252 is the House telecom bill, sponsored by Rep. Barton. It's been passed by the House and referred to the Senate Commerce Committee for consideration. The Senate Commerce Committee is marking up the Barton bill ... sort of. It's common practice in Congress to take a bill from the other bodt, strike everything after the enacting clause, and insert new text. This is important because the House and Senate can only go to conference to resolve differences on a piece of legislation that both have passed.
... Sununu has an amendment to the substitute that would strike the flag language. His amendment is NOT H.R. 5252.
The very first thing the committee did at markup was strike everything and insert text derived from S. 2686, a bill introduced by Senators Stevens and Inouye (the chair and ranking on the committee, respectively) earlier this year. The text they're working from isn't identical to S. 2686, because the members and their various staffers negotiated changes after that bill was introduced, but it is much more closely relatved to the Senate bill than the House bill that they're supposedly amending.
So
Anyone crazy enough to want to listen to the Senators do their thing can hop onto the committe website and read Sen. Stevens' opening statement, or listen to the markup. It's a realplayer video stream captured from internal Senate TV, but is actually audio only (no cameras were in the room). The markup starts near the 23 minute mark. Opening statements from the various members last until an hour and 20 minutes in, at which point the markup starts in earnest.
--- "DNA helicase kicks more ass than a barrel of highly trained ninja monkeys. Never forget that." - N. Howard
No, if the bill gets passed without being amended, it's a bad thing. The amendment, which we want to be passed, amends the bill to take out the harmful stuff. So we want either the amendment to be passed or the bill to not be passed. Either is fine, but the latter is not likely, which is why the amendment being passed is so important.
And for the person who modded the parent up: please actually check if a correction is true before modding something informative.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
The committee was only 10% of the way through mark-up of the bill this morning. So, we have some time. Not much.
Bruce Perens.