KindleI am writing to you as a constituent, a consumer, and technology user to express my deep concern about the broadcast flag and audio flag - two wide-reaching governmental technology mandates that are being placed before your committee on behalf of the entertainment industry.LinkThe proposed language for these flags would give the FCC new and far-reaching powers to control not just digital TV and radio, but how all digital media is handled on digital networks.
Such controls on the market aren't fair to consumers, who would have to pay extra or beg for "authorization" for rights that they traditioanlly have legally possessed. Tech mandates such as these will seriously cripple the promise of emerging media. New American technology companies will need to spend months asking permission to innovate from entrenched interests among the studio and record labels, which would have every incentive to impede progress.
And for what? These flags are, by the entertainment industry's own admission, the merest speed-bumps to serious infringers. Illegal copies of both audio and video will be made and distributed on the networks. Only private, legitimate, uses and bold new innovative technologies will be extinguished by the proposals.
Please stand up against these unparalleled and pre-emptive regulations on new media, our public airwaves, and America's multi-billion dollar technology industry. Please oppose the broadcast and audio flags, and vote against the Digital Content Protection Act if it appears before the Senate Commerce Committee.
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.