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The PERFORM Act seeks to restrict broadcasting rights on streaming media

U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Dianne Feinstein yesterday introduced the PERFORM Act (Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006), which would ensure that all streaming media services used protected formats.  Essentially, because users can save songs on radio receivers without paying to download the content, this act would be a roadblock to prevent downloading in the future.  Although Sirius Satellite Radio has made agreements with several major record labels about the technology, XM has not yet done so.  In the company's defense, XM claims that the new devices are a simply new and tech savvy way for consumers to record content.  Ars Technica reports:

Under the rules set forth in the Act, you would be able to make automated sound recordings, but only based on "specific programs, time periods, or channels as selected by or for the user," but not on "specific sound recordings, albums, or artists." Once recorded, it would be illegal to process the recorded data in order to extract separate songs for later use.

Both the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are preparing to battle the legislation.  The HRRC and EFF both believe that consumers would no longer be able to enjoy the flexibility of digital technology because the legislation will destroy Internet radio.


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It never ends!
By paperfist on 4/28/2006 10:51:26 AM , Rating: 2
Why is the consumer, the ones who make their finical world go 'round, always on edge. Always having to defend ourselves against the very public servants we elect and employ. They continually spin off these proposals in slightly different light with always the same hold the user hostage mentality as if we were all evildoers! We need a new Amendment, “The Right To Bear Digital Media”...




RE: It never ends!
By Merglet on 4/28/2006 11:34:58 AM , Rating: 5
Seems like every day the current gov't of the US is restricting more and more freedoms of the populace.. I wonder how far it'll go before people realise they don't live in a democracy anymore?


RE: It never ends!
By Perium on 4/28/2006 12:00:29 PM , Rating: 2
Totally agree!


RE: It never ends!
By Chernobyl68 on 4/28/2006 12:14:43 PM , Rating: 2
we don't live in one now.


RE: It never ends!
By rushfan2006 on 4/28/2006 12:34:49 PM , Rating: 2
Of course we live in a democracy still (if we didn't we wouldn't vote for our representatives in local, state or federal government). But I understand what you are saying...freedoms seem to just get more and more restricted as time goes on.

Heck I'm still waiting to see the day we read a story with this headline "Congress Approves Taxation on Oxygen We Breathe"....


RE: It never ends!
By TomZ on 4/28/2006 12:55:43 PM , Rating: 2
Technically, we (U.S.) live in a republic, not a democracy.


RE: It never ends!
By glennpratt on 4/28/2006 1:48:55 PM , Rating: 2
Somebody paid attention in High School Government. I was wondering how far I would have to scroll before that was posted.


RE: It never ends!
By rushfan2006 on 4/28/2006 4:26:06 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Technically, we (U.S.) live in a republic, not a democracy.


Yes you are correct. We are a republic. I can admit my own confusion -- our voting process is an exercise is democracy, but our political structure is republic. As for the folks below your post trying to be smartasses about it to me...well...I guess I shouldn't be surprised...such is the way of the Internet...everyone has to get their chops in, even when folks honestly make a mistake they admit to.


RE: It never ends!
By Chernobyl68 on 4/28/2006 5:33:57 PM , Rating: 2
That was, actually, my point. thanks!


RE: It never ends!
By AndreasM on 4/28/2006 1:44:34 PM , Rating: 2
Voting means nothing unless the elections are fair. Soviet Russia was a democracy too, with constitutionally protected rights like freedom of press. For some reason the silly Soviet leaders ignored their own constitution...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_democracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Soviet_Constitut...


RE: It never ends!
By AndreasM on 4/28/2006 1:46:53 PM , Rating: 2
And for some reason my post went in the wrong place, which seems to be a common occurence nowadays. Any admins investigating the bugginess?


RE: It never ends!
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 4/28/2006 6:49:02 PM , Rating: 2
"Any admins investigating the bugginess? "

Yes, I am trying to track it down.


RE: It never ends!
By Pythias on 4/28/2006 4:58:47 PM , Rating: 2
Its a republic, always has been. Pay attention.


RE: It never ends!
By lewisc on 4/28/2006 8:05:56 PM , Rating: 3
Being a republic and a democracy are not mutually exclusive. A republic is just one specific form of a democratic structure. The US is a republic in the sense that power is wielded by the people, who delegate that responsibility to representatives to govern in accordance with their wishes. The other defining feature of a republic is that it has an elected or nominated head of state, the president.

Democracy simply means that power is held by the people, it does not specify by what means this power is exercised. It can be demonstrated through a number of forms. Four forms are; representative, primarily where power is invested in the US; Direct, whereby the people exercise formal control over policy decisions as a whole (such as through referenda or initiatives in the US); deliberative, whereby the aim is to debate entrenched policy issues and reach formal consensus, rather than through voting; participatory, such as democracy excersied through worker cooperatives, or some left leaning groups where the purpose is for relatively homogeneous preferences are debated, and policy formed.

All four models of democracy have their weaknesses, and some can be said to be more 'democratic' than others (see Dryzek's measures of democracy - scope, authenticity and franchise - 1996). In reality, a modern nation state is going to have elements of all four operating simultaneously, although usually only representative is able to scale to a national level and still remain efficient. Therefore, the question shouldn't be is the US a republic, or is it a democracy, but to what extent can it be called democratic, to what degree to the people truly exercises popular control.


RE: It never ends!
By iDakey on 4/28/2006 12:11:55 PM , Rating: 2
Bush couldn't possibly deliver this promise.

We need less government. But, instead we have self righteous crusaders destroying our freedom in the name of any number of pathetic causes. 99% of which can't stand up to a debate outside of the ignorant influence and brain washed mentaltity of your local flock. The church parking lots are still full every Sunday. What is going on there? Humans are so incredibly gullible, still getting off on a thousands year old sham. While Corporations and Churches roll out 100 yr plans to keep there cons alive, citizens sit back and let it happen, watching the individual shrink to nothing.

I recorded many live shows and songs from the radio to tape and later to cd long before the Internet boom and the accompanying greed( which leads to fear). I never once thought of reselling or distributing those recordings for profit. I did gather more interest in the aritst or not and that lead to purchases or not. The same principles still apply. Ask yourself, what percentage of people that have downloaded or recorded a song from the radio would have been inclined at all to download or even to listen to that artist if it were not free? The answer is no or none or maybe 5%. Not allowing the possblie exposure that comes with these recording from airwaves/bandwith will ultimately decrease profits and sales. Cut off your nose to spite your face if you ask me, and in the name of what? Fear.

You see Fear is ignorance in action. Incomplete knowledge leading to formation of an opinion attached to emotion. Acting on this emotion should then be considered extremely primitive. Sadly the majority have embraced it as a massive catalyst.

Da-key


RE: It never ends!
By TomZ on 4/28/2006 12:56:44 PM , Rating: 2
This is why the U.S. is a republic, not a democracy.


RE: It never ends!
By Dev17 on 4/28/2006 1:12:39 PM , Rating: 2
I couln't agree more. On top of things the ignorance of the music industry can be seen from the fact that they haven't even considered that people aren't into buying more music. Many have good collection and are happy to only occasionaly buy the rare good album that comes out. Also ther forms of entertainment such as Video Games are becoming more and more popular to the extent video games actually compete to a large extent with both the DVD and Music industry.
Also Filesharing != Piracy.


Endless loop
By Alphafox78 on 4/28/2006 12:29:58 PM , Rating: 4
1. Some people pirate music
2. Music industry cracks down and blames low sales on pirates.
3. More people pirate since pirces go up
4. Anal DRM schemes crop up and try to squash pirating, although they dont do much as true priates find a way around it, just pisses average joe off.
5. Average Joe gets pissed off and either gets music from frieds who allready removed DRM or just doesnt buy DRM laden crap.
6. Sales go down more, music industry blames priates....

There will ALWAYS be some piracy, deal with it and dont piss off average Joe




RE: Endless loop
By kattanna on 4/28/2006 12:52:55 PM , Rating: 2
yeah but they lost me at the .5 stage

.5 make lots of crappy music/tv/movies and expect people to flock to it

so i didnt even make it to the 1.0 stage..LOL



RE: Endless loop
By theslug on 4/28/2006 4:59:00 PM , Rating: 2
Thanks for the inane, completely idiotic observation.


RE: Endless loop
By TomZ on 4/28/2006 5:59:21 PM , Rating: 2
Instead of posting a comment like yours, it might be more effective to vote it away with Not Worth Reading.


RE: Endless loop
By Scrogneugneu on 4/29/2006 12:52:13 AM , Rating: 2
Unless of course he has answered somewhere else, where in that case his vote would simply not count.

The voting system has to be revised to only nullify the votes when you post in the same "topic". Anybody that wants to rate down a post but also answer somewhere else can't do both right now and it's pretty annoying.

A comprehensive edit function, enabled as long as nobody voted or answered to your post, would be a VERY NICE touch, too.


RE: Endless loop
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 4/30/2006 4:06:11 PM , Rating: 2
"The voting system has to be revised to only nullify the votes when you post in the same "topic"."

Not a bad idea, but it still leaves the door open for abuse. We're still sorting out ideas for editting as well.


Vote with your dollars.
By emergethis on 4/28/2006 1:35:08 PM , Rating: 2
My question is why do people complain so much about the 'Big Businesses' taking away our freedoms and such!? We, the consumer, CAN do something about this! Quit buying their products!!! That will send a clear message to the industry. But the problem is that people take their entertainment more seriously than their freedom. "How am I supposed to listen to the music I like?", well you wouln't be able to for a while at least or listen to indie stuff untill the industry wakes up (if it does) or collapses and record labels realize they have to respect the wishes of the consumer.

The bottom line is if your freedom and rights are important to you then stop buying CDs, MP3s, etc. Buckle down and take a stand. As idealistic as it sounds that is a way to make them hear your concerns if you really mean it.

Just my 1/2 cent.




RE: Vote with your dollars.
By TomZ on 4/28/2006 2:27:48 PM , Rating: 2
I don't think an all-out boycott is best. There are lots of independent record labels out there without RIAA affiliation. These are generally the "good guys" in the industry that are trying to make a buck the "fair" way - by providing good product at reasonable prices. The RIAA just wants to beat its customers with big sticks and lobby congress to help increase its profits through legislation.

So, before you buy your next CD, check to see if it is "RIAA-free": http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with RIAA or Boycott RIAA.


RE: Vote with your dollars.
By BladeVenom on 4/28/2006 2:40:19 PM , Rating: 2
If you care about freedom, and your rights check out http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ before you buy any music.


RE: Vote with your dollars.
By Scrogneugneu on 4/29/2006 1:02:32 AM , Rating: 2
People will never do it. A company can force people do to whatever it wants so long as it plays it's cards well. Tke an example :

About 2 years ago, gas was (here in Quebec) around 60¢/L. The price suddnely started to go up, and quickly reached 80¢/L. People were complaining like hell, saying "this is insane, we can't live with this, how are we gonna do, it's so stupid". Then the price calmed down a little and went back to 75¢/L. But then, it went up again, all the way up to 95¢/L. People were AGAIN saying the same old stuff : "We'll have to reduce consumation, we'll have to look into new ways...". The price calmed down once again and hit the 85¢/L mark. Then another rise took place, to the point where most places sold gas at 1,20$/L. This was completely horrible, everyone called for the government to place a new law to restrict those insane prices. But it calmed down and stabilized just over 1$/L. From that time, it slowly went up, and today we are fluctuating between 1,10$/L and 1,20$/L.


Bottomline : We now pay twice as much for our gas than 2 years ago, but nobody is doing anything about it. Everyone always complains, but everyone then conforms. People call out for restrictions when prices move quickly, but won't if it comes up slowly. The sales levels are all the same, nobody did buy less gas, and people did buy car with a very bad gas consumption rate.

The mass simply follows whatever the companies tell them to do. If nobody offers gas cheaper than 1,20$/L, then everyone will buy it at that price, even if it could be sold at 60¢/L. It's sad, but it's true.


RE: Vote with your dollars.
By PrinceGaz on 4/29/2006 9:26:29 PM , Rating: 2
Ah but you are talking about something (petrol or diesel fuel I assume is what you mean by gas) which is only easily obtainable by paying the corporate suppliers asking price. You don't really have anyone else to go to for your fuel if all of the suppliers have agreed to raise their prices and there is no government body in place to prevent price-fixing.

The situation is totally different with music and all other forms of media that can be easily distributed to an almost unlimited number of people electronically for a tiny fraction of the amount the corporations charge for it. Unlike with real physical commodities like fuel, if the customers are unhappy with how much they are charged for music, they can always get it from somewhere else almost free of charge. That's why the RIAA and the companies it represents are so scared and are taking legal action against everyone they can, because they know that in the electronic distribution age, the days of overpriced music where almost all the profit goes to the publisher instead of the artist are numbered.

The large music labels with the help of the RIAA will no doubt continue to attempt to limit consumers rights and take legal action against anyone they think might be distributing music freely, but at the end of the day the independent publishers who properly recompense their artists, charge the customer a fair price, and allow us (the people they rely on) to do what we want with what buy from them, will be the winners. The large record labels who are only interested in their own profits and screwing the consumer will die out in a few years unless they change their ways.


RE: Vote with your dollars.
By Scrogneugneu on 4/29/2006 11:19:04 PM , Rating: 2
Yes, I was talking about fuel, sorry for the bad choice of word.


The situation isn't really that different. If you want fuel, you'll need to get it from somewhere and everybody is selling it around the same price. Therefore, you can complain that the price is too high, but you'll have to buy it at that price.


If you want to buy Madonna's CD, every place will sell it for the same price, since all the copies of the same CD cost the same. If it's too high but you want it, you have no choice : such is the price that has to be paid for Madonna's music. You can complain it's high, but you have no choice : if you want to have it (which I assume you do, if you were looking at it), you have to pay a high price. Having other records companies with lower prices won't change anything if the bands on these records are of no interest to you.


Amazing how money motovates
By Morpth on 4/28/2006 10:50:18 AM , Rating: 2
I wonder how many like minded people you would need to band together to lobby politicans to do your bidding?




RE: Amazing how money motovates
By paperfist on 4/28/2006 10:52:27 AM , Rating: 2
You only need 1 with a big enough wallet.


RE: Amazing how money motovates
By TomZ on 4/28/2006 11:14:42 AM , Rating: 5
Please consider a donation to the EFF. They are doing good work in this area.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with EFF.


RE: Amazing how money motovates
By hoppa on 4/28/2006 1:05:37 PM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately, they are still getting nowhere. The EFF is an organization the represents the people; the RIAA represents big business. And we all know who always wins in the end. The people simply cannot stand up to monsters so huge. People keep fighting and yet everything continues to get worse. First it was DMCA; lawsuits; price-gouged online music stores with over-protective formats; microchips with hardware-level DRM; HDCP, blu-ray, HD-DVD; now this. We are stuck on this path and there is little we can do, until the RIAA finally get busted for oligopolistic (or soon monopolistic) practices.


Is it snowing in hell?
By Orpheus333 on 4/28/2006 10:34:21 AM , Rating: 2
Lindsey Graham and Dianne Feinstein? whoa!





RE: Is it snowing in hell?
By brystmar on 4/28/2006 2:12:14 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah I couldn't believe this either...I guess opposites DO attract!


RE: Is it snowing in hell?
By Pythias on 4/28/2006 4:55:35 PM , Rating: 3
No. Its raining money in washington...as always. Get it straight. The letter in front of your pet representative's name means nothing. Its a smoke screen. Money talks, bullshit walks. Tey're all the same, all for sale.


That is all.


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