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Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Sat Radio Recording Moves Ahead
"Last June, the Recording Industry Association of America sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission describing the ability to record songs from digital broadcasts as the "perfect storm" facing the music industry," says Wired. Possibly grateful for the information, within weeks, electronics manufacturer Delphi and Time Trax Technologies released the first products for recording digital tracks from satellite radio --without a note of discord from the RIAA. Better still, according to the story, Time Trax will increase the number of radio-recording devices this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, and CEO Elliot Frutkin expects the recording industry will turn a deaf ear. "I am not immediately concerned about the RIAA challenging Time Trax," said Frutkin. (Time Trax will use software to embed the serial number of the receiver into the copied music so the it can be identified should someone attempt some peer to peer swappage.)

What I really need to know, however, is what the big deal here is. When I had the 3-day online trial to Sirius and XM, I recorded stuff with impunity using a Windows-based sound recorder.

# Permalink Posted at 5:18 AM 5 comments Email this Link

Comments on this Item:

Here is what the fuss is, Bill: Sat Radio DRM=future profits from massive scale lawsuits.

Noticed anything about the RIAA, Bill? Own any vinyl albums circa 1965 or earlier? That was when the RIAA placed notices on most albums giving crossover frequency data and when a recording could be played on stereo or mono equipment. They done morphed...

Today the RIAA is a front for middlemen who make their money off of the artists. The recording industry fostered laws that permitted John Fogerty's own music company, Fantasy Music, to sue him - to bar him from performing lest he cut into the sales revenue of his former publisher. That case went to the US Supreme Court and Fogerty won - TWICE. At a cost of tens of millions of dollars - financed on both sides by the revenue generated from his creative works. That's just nuts.

Copyright laws have been amended on the average of once a year since the 1976 major revision to the 1909 act. All of the post '76 amendments have been weighed in favor of the middlemen and not the artist.

DRM schemes for SatRadio are just one more way for the middlemen to profit from the creative works of artists and screw the artists- there are always more middlemen - it takes a special mind to sever the rights to an artist's work and alienate it for their personal profit. The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act has brought George & Ira Gershwin's early works back under copyright protection - but I haven't noticed how George & Ira have been more productive recently.

Oh, that's right- you think all government is BS and private industry can do best with all they can grab. So, you agree that private industry can usurp a weak party's "IP" rights - but how do you square that with a private industry that couldn't exist without FCC regs on frequency usage?

Anyway, the RIAA will make the manufacturers of DRM circumventing hardware/software pay up through application of the No Electronic Theft Act and the anti-reverse engineering aspects of that Act and the 1996 amendments to the Copyright Act - but not before they have a nice collection of defendants to sue - like, you!

I'll make a point of archiving your blog entry and I'll turn you in as soon as they offer a bounty.

What about them apples right-wing Lim-BAH boy?

love,

TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD,TODD

You came up with the TODD name, you Rush-addict. Let's all hope that Rush's New Year's Resolution is to take his last dose before the hangman solves his problem for him. The last thing I want to hear about is how well Rush was hung...

# posted by Anonymous 6:46 AM

Such disjointed vitriol. My, my, my. You remind me of a guy who used to be around here and then said goodbye.

# posted by Bill 8:49 AM

It's especially ridiculous considering the relatively low quality of these broadcasts. What's the sound comparable too, a 128k MP3? FM sounds much better. But of course, it's "digital", which we all know means "perfect". And the RIAA has always flipped out about any kind of home recording, what else is new. If they had their way we'd all pay a levy on the electricity we use and the air we breathe, based on the amounts of these resources the RIAA calculates we expend on piracy.

Michael

# posted by Anonymous 2:24 PM

Hmmm,

Actually agreed with a couple of Todd's comments on Artist's vs. Middlemen. But he blew his whole argument when he just started to rave.

Guess the article just means it's time to hack my Time Traxx box to spoof the serial number. A new chip here, a little weld there (you have never seen me solder!). Can't and won't be too hard.

# posted by wanebo 5:50 PM

Unfortunately (or maybe not), the better mouse always seems to evolve from the better mouse trap.

# posted by Bill 7:44 PM

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