Senate (Stevens) Pushing the Broadcast Flag Again

[liveoaktx]

Senate may hoist broadcast flag again-Stevens for-Sununu Against

I watched this hearing on Cspan the other day. Broadcast flag was smacked down through the courts when the FCC tried to do it. So now the entertainment industry is trying to get it passed through Congress. What it would mean is that fair use snips of songs or media that is not news or in the public interest wouldn't be able to be shared anymore but only played on the hardware equipment it was recorded on.

It's interesting to read the hypocrisy of Stevens in this article, where he's all for video BF but not for audio because it might affect his daughter's IPOD.

One other comment:If BF fair use would only be available for news and public interest, would that include only the channels that are (or will be formerly) broadcast or paid cable/sat as well?

Bottom line- if this passes, every hardware manufacture would be required to alter equipment so that songs/movies/tv shows could be recorded and played only on that one device.

[Hubert Flottz]

1. Stephens is insane.

He should be in a nice rubber room somewhere, learning to weave baskets!