Congress is considering its first major telecommunications reform since 1996. Rather than a focused solution for specific problems, the leading Senate bill has become a sprawling 200-plus pages, larded with bad policies and pet projects. Hollywood is laundering mandatory digital media restrictions in Senator Ted Stevens' bill, while Net censors have slipped in burdensome labeling requirements for web publishers. It's critical that you take action now and tell your Senator to oppose Stevens' bill.
Broadcast Flag
Today, you can use any device you like with your television: VCR, TiVo, DVD recorder, home theater receiver, or a PC combining these functions and more. But if the broadcast flag mandate is passed as part of Stevens' bill, Hollywood and federal bureaucrats will get a veto over innovative devices and legitimate uses of recorded programming. Hollywood has repeatedly failed to sneak this mandate through Congress, and, by taking action now, you can help deal them another defeat.
Audio Flag
The proposed "audio flag" in Stevens' bill would similarly give the FCC new legal powers to restrict the recording features of all digital radio receivers to "customary uses." Digital radio would be shackled into historical feature sets that analog radios have had for decades with little room to innovate, and music fans will be cheated out of the benefits of digital technology. Take action and help clear the way for TiVo-for-radio and other novel devices that help you get more from your radio.
Web Labeling
Stevens' bill also includes a dangerous provision that would allow the imprisonment of webmasters who don't litter their sites with burdensome warning labels. Though the proposal requires all "sexually explicit" sites to bare these labels, it won't impact the majority of adult websites because they are hosted outside United States jurisdiction. Yet this proposal will damage free speech online and violate the First Amendment, forcing sex education, teenage advocacy groups', and other legitimate websites to describe their lawful content inappropriately.
