Susan knows best

Susan B. Anthony is credited with the following quote:
"The true republic - men, their rights and nothing more; women their
rights and nothing less."

The reason why I ever think about this quote is the "nothing less" part, as in consumer's rights and nothing less. This applies most notably to things like DRM technology. Not to mention that the whole notion of an "end user license agreement" is just despicable.

So, the latest in the battle about the digital content is that Congress is proposing a Broadcast flag for video and audio content. What this means is that Congress would be in direct control of all technology that is involved in any way with creating, distributing or enjoying digital content.

Under this law, all technological innovation would essentially cease. If this law were in place in 1970, we would have no VCRs, in 1990, we would have no TiVo, in 2000, we would have no iPod.

As was evidenced by the Abramoff debacle, the entire political establishment is in the hands of people willing to put up large amounts of money, not the average constituent. I don't really blame him for anything he did, he was following what I am sure is a very large crowd in D.C.

Anyway, back to the broadcast flag. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (which I love because it defends the rights of consumers) is asking people to write to Congressmen (persons?) to show that they don't support the broadcast flag.

I suggest that you look at the EFF site to see if you would like to get involved in the attempt to keep people's rights intact and out of the hands of the RIAA and the MPAA.

What is REALLY stupid is that all of this happens because the business model of the recording and movie industry does not support digital content, that is why they are trying to get Congress to regulate (aka stop) it the way that it did old (analog, "traditional") content. This is stupid. The whole argument of the companies akin to the auto industry saying that customizing your car should be outlawed because it takes away revenues for auto suppliers. It doesn't make sense. There are some places that are embracing digital media and using it to their advantage, like how Comedy Central has good clips of it's shows readily available online for anyone to see. Instead of trying to get people to pay for each viewing, or limiting who can view, they know that they are better off letting everyone view and enjoy. Hurray!

Don't forget to write your congressperson, because we all deserve our rights and nothing less.