Protect your right to record radio

One of the early tasks of the new congressional session is work to prevent consumers from recording radio broadcasts. Work with the EFF and help prevent this bad law.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has re-introduced the PERFORM Act, a backdoor assault on your right to record off the radio. Satellite and digital radio stations as well as Internet webcasters would have to adopt digital rights management (DRM) restrictions or lose the statutory license for broadcasting music.

. . .

This bill aims to hobble TiVo-like devices for satellite and digital radio. Such devices would be able to include “reasonable recording” features, but that excludes choosing and playing back selections based on song title, artist, or genre. Want to freely move recordings around your home network or copy them to the portable player of your choice? You’ll be out of luck if PERFORM passes.

This would also mess up streaming radio, as well as breaking any tools for recording streamed mp3 broadcasts.

[tags]Congress working to screw up fair-use again[tags/]