This is not good…
Even if you do not listen to Internet radio stations such as Shoutcast or Live365 or iTunes radio, this is something that will affect you-it will, if it passes, set a very scary precedent. It will affect us all, should it pass from a bill into law, and I encourage you to do something about this, and to encourage your friends to do something about this.
A bill was introduced in the Senate on (as best as I can tell) January 11, 2007. This bill, called the “Perform Act of 2007,” also known as the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2007,” is a bill that calls for the universal restriction of all forms of digitally transmitted music systems. In short, if this passes, this means that we must all use software that supports DRM (Digitial Restrictions Management) to listen to our streaming stations. It also means that anyone who uses systems for which no DRM technology is available, such as Microsoft Windows (in the case of Windows Media DRM) would become unable to listen to such radio streams.
This is a bad thing, and for more reasons than a large number of people not being able to listen to music on the Internet. It is yet another attack on the freedom of choice, which we cannot allow to happen.
Available on the Internet is the introduction to the Senate, including the Perform Act of 2007’s full text. It can also be found on pages S446-S448 of the Senate Congressional Record (Link to Page S446).
If you like being free, and if you like music, and especially if you listen to Internet Radio, and are interested in being able to continue to do so, write your senators and let them know!
You can contact your senators through the EFF, or on your own. The EFF has a letter geared towards everyone, and I have a letter that is geared towards users of GNU/Linux systems. An OpenOffice.org copy and a Microsoft Word copy are available. Ensure that you customize the letter; you have two senators, so you will need to print two copies. Make sure that your information is correct, as well, and that it is all on one page (for Microsoft Word users, mostly).
Let’s not get our right to listen to music taken away!
A bill was introduced in the Senate on (as best as I can tell) January 11, 2007. This bill, called the “Perform Act of 2007,” also known as the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2007,” is a bill that calls for the universal restriction of all forms of digitally transmitted music systems. In short, if this passes, this means that we must all use software that supports DRM (Digitial Restrictions Management) to listen to our streaming stations. It also means that anyone who uses systems for which no DRM technology is available, such as Microsoft Windows (in the case of Windows Media DRM) would become unable to listen to such radio streams.
This is a bad thing, and for more reasons than a large number of people not being able to listen to music on the Internet. It is yet another attack on the freedom of choice, which we cannot allow to happen.
Available on the Internet is the introduction to the Senate, including the Perform Act of 2007’s full text. It can also be found on pages S446-S448 of the Senate Congressional Record (Link to Page S446).
If you like being free, and if you like music, and especially if you listen to Internet Radio, and are interested in being able to continue to do so, write your senators and let them know!
You can contact your senators through the EFF, or on your own. The EFF has a letter geared towards everyone, and I have a letter that is geared towards users of GNU/Linux systems. An OpenOffice.org copy and a Microsoft Word copy are available. Ensure that you customize the letter; you have two senators, so you will need to print two copies. Make sure that your information is correct, as well, and that it is all on one page (for Microsoft Word users, mostly).
Let’s not get our right to listen to music taken away!