RIAA Asks FCC to Lock Down Digital Radio

Found on Electronic Frontier Foundation on Saturday, 19 June 2004
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San Francisco, CA and New York, NY - If the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gets its way, consumers will not be permitted to listen to digital radio broadcasts unless they use an industry-approved device.

This is only the latest chapter in a decades-long campaign by the RIAA to stop home recording of radio broadcasts. But as EFF and the Brennan Center point out in their comments, it is perfectly legal for people to make home recordings of radio broadcasts under current copyright laws.In essence, the RIAA is urging the FCC to override home recording rights guaranteed to the public by copyright law.

"The RIAA is trying to halt the development of next-generation digital technologies, like a Tivo for radio -- technologies that are perfectly legal under copyright law," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "This is about restricting personal home taping off the radio, something that Congress has said is legal and that millions of Americans have been doing for decades."

The industry keeps on trying to push its idea of laws into reality, I wonder why nobody in a high position tells them to care about their business only. If they wouldn't use their money for lawsuits and bribery, they wouldn't have "financial losses" (which they of course blame filesharing for).