Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

« Thunderbird feature requests || Back to Blog | Micah on Open Source Politics »

November 14, 2004

It's the FCC's world

The FCC has clear jurisdiction over the equipment used for radio and wire transmissions. Now Susan Crawford of the Cardozo Law School has discovered that in its brief supporting the Broadcast Flag, the FCC claims the authority over, well, the Internet.

To support the Flag, says Susan, the FCC claims it can mandate

...the use of "authorized" content protection technologies by virtually every consumer electronics product and computer product...

...this rule doesn't merely affect TV receiving equipment. It affects everything that RECEIVES digital files from TV receiving equipment as well -- every device inside any home network. It affects the open-platform PC. It's a sweeping rule. And now FCC's jurisdiction to enact this rule is being argued in sweeping terms.

This is another serious step toward commercial totalitarian control over speech and culture. Won't someone please do something about it? Thank you.

Posted by D. Weinberger at November 14, 2004 10:39 AM


TrackBack

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference It's the FCC's world:

» The FCC thinks it has the authority to regulate eveything capable of playing back video, including the entire Internet and every PC in the U.S. from Wagner's Weblog
Boing Boing has more. Joho the Blog says: "This is another serious step toward commercial totalitarian control over speech and culture. Won't someone please do something about it? Thank you."... [Read More]

Tracked on November 14, 2004 03:27 PM

» Questions about FCC's authority from Smart Mobs
What is the extent of the FCC's authority? According to Susan Crawford, the FCC has filed a brief in the broadcast flag challenge pending before the DC Circuit in which it "has established a new and extraordinarily broad regulatory regime... [Read More]

Tracked on November 15, 2004 08:21 AM

» The long arm of the FCC from Politech Ramblings
Dan Gillmor has an article today in regards to the FCC and their powers: FCC Claims Rights to Regulate Your PC. I will let Dan's comments and I am sure the comments of many many blogs (http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/003359.html, Mischievous ... [Read More]

Tracked on November 16, 2004 09:58 AM

» Now Susan Crawford of the Cardozo Law School has discovered that in its brief supporting the Broadcast Flag, the FCC claims the authority over, well, the Internet. from BlogBites
Joho the Blog [Read More]

Tracked on November 18, 2004 06:49 AM

Comments

I imagine "we" will have to participate, somehow, in doing something about it.

"Doing" exactly what, other than blogging, is difficult to imagine. Right now, blogging about it, even if hundreds of thousands of bloggers do, seems kinda like standing outside the legislative building, picketing and chanting. "We" can easily be ignored 'cuz this union has no standing and no power ... just voices.

Posted by: Jon Husband | November 14, 2004 11:56 AM


And where were you when campaign finance "reform" was passed? This isn't new, and it's being aided and abetted by morons like McCain, Feingold, Meehan, and their allies in the media, who want a monopoly over what the "news" is.

Posted by: James Robertson | November 14, 2004 12:40 PM


Small nit: it's Cardozo, not Cardoza.

Posted by: Frankenstein | November 14, 2004 03:10 PM


D'oh. I fixed it. Thanks.

Posted by: David Weinberger | November 14, 2004 03:47 PM


" Won't someone please do something about it? "

To do something about it...

. 1) Of course contacy your representative

. 2) Login to Electronic Freedom Foundation , PublicKnowledge , etc, ( I have some links at: WeMatter digital ) tell them that you support Digital Freedom and Technology progress.

. 3) Of course, if you have extra Money, or Time, give it to the cause.

It does seem that we are starting to have some effects. some of the bills have started to be stopped though we have not yet reached the tipping point.

Note: I note that after the Preview the text version has deleted the links. I believe this is not a failure, but I am duplicating the links in case I made an error in the input, e.g.

. http://www.eff.org
. http://www.publicknowledge.org/index.php
. http://www.wematter.com/links.htm#digital

Posted by: Mike Liveright | November 14, 2004 05:13 PM


Thank you for the link to the EFF. That is much appreciated. I will be sending that to some people.

JS

Posted by: Jarvis Stubblefield | November 16, 2004 10:52 AM


Post a comment

Guidelines for Commenting

Basically, you can say what you want. (Click here for the fine print.)

If you haven't left a comment here before, your comment may be put into a queue for me to approve. Sorry for the delay. Blame the damn spammers.