The Recording Industry Association of America has discovered that digital radio broadcasts can be copied and redistributed over the Internet.

The horror.

And so the RIAA, the music business’s trade and lobbying group, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to step in and impose an “audio broadcast flag” on certain forms of digital radio.

On April 15, the FCC bowed to the RIAA’s request and initiated a notice of inquiry, typically a step leading to formal rule-making. The public may submit comments to the FCC between June 16 and July 16.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The entertainment industries, unable to get Congress to pass related legislation, did an end-run by lobbying mightily to get the Federal Communications Commission to impose a broadcast flag requirement to protect digital television signals from “indiscriminate retransmission” over the Internet. The FCC, which has been quietly transforming into the Federal Computer Commission, did just that last fall. The new rules for digital TV take effect in July 2005.

Taking a page from Hollywood, the recording industry has begun to push for a similar regime for digital radio, prosing an audio broadcast flag for inclusion in the digital radio transmissions of terrestrial AM and FM stations. The parameters of such a flag, or piece of software code, are still unclear. It would likely prevent users from sending copyrighted radio programs over the Internet. But it could also hamstring other legitimate uses by preventing a digital radio program from leaving the device on which it was recorded.

Where today you can tape anything you want over the free analog radio airwaves, that may not be true tomorrow. Want to record the digital broadcast of Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, or Terry Gross on your PC and listen to it in your car? Or tape a cool new digital radio station you discovered and play it for friends at a party?

Your device may well tell you: I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Digital radio promises to replace the static and hiss of analog AM and FM signals with crackle-free CD-quality sound. The technology will also allow listeners to summon up song titles, artist names, traffic updates, weather forecasts, sports scores, Spanish language translations, and more on high-definition radio receivers. Digital radio receivers went on sale in the United States only in early 2003, and the nascent industry is just beginning to get off the ground. More than 280 radio stations in 100 U.S. markets have begun digital audio broadcasts or are in the process of converting from analog-only broadcasts.

A revealing exchange of letters flew back and forth last month between RIAA president Cary Sherman, in the role of King Canute commanding the sea to recede, and Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro, in the role of bemused observer.

Sherman disclosed the RIAA’s latest prophesy of Internet doom and gloom in an April 14 letter to Shapiro,. Sherman wrote in part:

[W]e are concerned that new devices manufactured by your members will enable radio listeners to become owners and world distributors of a personalized collection of sound recordings. Specifically, our understanding is that the next generation of digital radio receivers would grant the unfettered ability (1) to redistribute recordings widely, whether on the Internet or digital media and (2) to automatically copy and disaggregate from a broadcast particular recordings of the user’s choice, thereby transforming a passive listening experience into a personal music library — in many cases without the user even listening to the original broadcast. These features, especially when combined with inexpensive storage devices, would fundamentally change the character of broadcast radio from a listening service to a distribution and on-demand reproduction system, displacing the sales on which the entire music industry relies.

In other words, the recording industry fears a TiVo or ReplayTV for radio.

Among the forward-thinking ideas that Sherman outlined was a “buy button” that consumer electronics makers could add to their devices, giving consumers “the ability to quickly and easily purchase music that they hear on the radio.”

Shapiro all but chortled in his riposte, writing that he was “puzzled” by “your belief that longstanding and legitimate consumer recording practices suddenly pose a threat to your industry.” He also needled Sherman, “You state that you do not wish to limit the ability of consumers to record over-the-air radio broadcasts. Instead, you apparently want to force them to buy what they have received for free since Fleming and Marconi first made it possible for consumers to hear news and music over the public airwaves. As you know, we have long been concerned about content owners seeking to change the ‘play’ button on our devices to a ‘pay’ button.”

Shapiro pointed out that hundreds of thousands of digital radios have been sold in Great Britain without harm to the recording industry, that digital radio has never been linked to illegal file-sharing services, and that the RIAA position seemed to breach an agreement it entered into in January 2003 not to seek technical protection measures imposed by the government.

In its notice of inquiry, the FCC staff wrote:

It appears likely that future digital audio broadcast receivers will include advanced features such as digital recorders capable of storing audio content and that digital audio broadcast transmissions are likely to include specific song identifications in the ‘metadata’ within the digital data stream Using this data, it may be possible to have a recording device automatically search for and record a large amount of the music of an individual artist or group or find and record particular specified song titles to the extent the songs are broadcast locally. RIAA has stated that ‘digital audio receivers will be able to parse digital broadcasts on a song by song basis, thereby enabling listeners to copy the entire repertoire of individual artists with the push of a button and without even listening to a radio station’s broadcast programming.’ It further states that ‘these devices could also permit listeners to transfer songs to other devices for serial copying and distribution over the Internet.’ RIAA expresses concern that the launch of digital audio broadcasting, in an unencrypted manner, will permit consumers to ‘exploit’ recorded music in ways that ‘ignore the intellectual property interests’ of the recording labels and artists and deprive them of legitimate compensation. Although no specific proposal for action has been submitted to the Commission, we are mindful that certain available options may be extremely difficult to implement later after a significant base of equipment has been deployed and consumer expectations have developed. Accordingly, we believe these issues warrant exploration at this time.

If the FCC adopts such a broadcast flag rule for digital radio, it would apply only to what’s called “in-band on-channel digital radio content,” that is, digital radio stations that broadcast over the airwaves — as traditional AM and FM stations now do — and not to satellite radio or Webcasters that stream digital radio over the Internet.

Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that while he commends the position of the Consumer Electronics Association, “it’s worth noting that Shapiro sold us all out on exactly the same issue with digital TVs” when the CEA came to support a mandatory broadcast flag for video.

Cheryl Leanza, deputy director of Media Access Project, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., says the recording industry is afraid of the Napsterization of digital radio.

“In the analog world, you could tape songs off the radio, give the recording to your friends, and pretty much do anything you want with it,” she says. “In the newer world, the technology sets the rules and determines how long you can save a recording, how you can use it, and whether you can share it with a friend.

“The problem is, the technology is so ham-handed that it gives all controls to the content creator and no discretion to listeners, users or subsequent creators. Fair use goes out the window, and we lose the purpose of copyright, which is to spread ideas and promote discourse. If the technology and the new rules eliminate these kinds of legitimate uses, then you will limit a fair amount of the creativity that we would otherwise get as a society.”

Media Access Project is working with other organizations, such as Public Knowledge, Common Cause and the Center for Digital Democracy, to submit comments to the FCC during the public comment period.

J.D. Lasica is a veteran newspaper journalist and new media manager who is completing a book on the digital media revolution. He writes a daily blog, New Media Musings.

May 24 , 2004 | The Recording Industry Association of America has discovered that digital radio broadcasts can be copied and redistributed over the Internet.

The horror.

And so the RIAA, the music business’s trade and lobbying group, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to step in and impose an “audio broadcast flag” on certain forms of digital radio.

On April 15, the FCC bowed to the RIAA’s request and initiated a notice of inquiry, typically a step leading to formal rule-making. The public may submit comments to the FCC between June 16 and July 16.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The entertainment industries, unable to get Congress to pass related legislation, did an end-run by lobbying mightily to get the Federal Communications Commission to impose a broadcast flag requirement to protect digital television signals from “indiscriminate retransmission” over the Internet. The FCC, which has been quietly transforming into the Federal Computer Commission, did just that last fall. The new rules for digital TV take effect in July 2005.

Taking a page from Hollywood, the recording industry has begun to push for a similar regime for digital radio, proposing an audio broadcast flag for inclusion in the digital radio transmissions of terrestrial AM and FM stations. The parameters of such a flag, or piece of software code, are still unclear. It would likely prevent users from sending copyrighted radio programs over the Internet. But it could also hamstring other legitimate uses by preventing a digital radio program from leaving the device on which it was recorded.

Want to record the digital broadcast of Terry Gross’s “Fresh Air” on your PC and listen to it in your car? Or tape a cool new digital radio station you discovered and play it for friends at a party?

Your device may well tell you: I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Digital radio promises to replace the static and hiss of analog AM and FM signals with crackle-free CD-quality sound. The technology will also allow listeners to summon up song titles, artist names, traffic updates, weather forecasts, sports scores, Spanish language translations, and more on high-definition radio receivers. Digital radio receivers just went on sale in the United States earlier this year, and the nascent industry is just beginning to get off the ground. More than 280 radio stations in 100 U.S. markets have begun digital audio broadcasts or are in the process of converting from analog-only broadcasts.

In its notice of inquiry, the FCC staff wrote:

It appears likely that future digital audio broadcast receivers will include advanced features such as digital recorders capable of storing audio content and that digital audio broadcast transmissions are likely to include specific song identifications in the “metadata” within the digital data stream Using this data, it may be possible to have a recording device automatically search for and record a large amount of the music of an individual artist or group or find and record particular specified song titles to the extent the songs are broadcast locally. RIAA has stated that “digital audio receivers will be able to parse digital broadcasts on a song by song basis, thereby enabling listeners to copy the entire repertoire of individual artists with the push of a button and without even listening to a radio station’s broadcast programming.” It further states that “these devices could also permit listeners to transfer songs to other devices for serial copying and distribution over the Internet.” RIAA expresses concern that the launch of digital audio broadcasting, in an unencrypted manner, will permit consumers to “exploit” recorded music in ways that “ignore the intellectual property interests” of the recording labels and artists and deprive them of legitimate compensation. Although no specific proposal for action has been submitted to the Commission, we are mindful that certain available options may be extremely difficult to implement later after a significant base of equipment has been deployed and consumer expectations have developed. Accordingly, we believe these issues warrant exploration at this time.

If the FCC adopts such a broadcast flag rule for digital radio, it would apply only to what’s called “in-band on-channel digital radio content,” that is, digital radio stations that broadcast over the airwaves — as traditional AM and FM stations now do — and not to satellite radio or Webcasters that stream digital radio over the Internet.

Cheryl Leanza, deputy director of Media Access Project, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., says the recording industry is afraid of the Napsterization of digital radio.

“In the analog world, you could tape songs off the radio, give the recording to your friends, and pretty much do anything you want with it,” she says. “In the newer world, the technology sets the rules and determines how long you can save a recording, how you can use it, and whether you can share it with a friend.

“The problem is, the technology is so ham-handed that it gives all controls to the content creator and no discretion to listeners, users or subsequent creators. Fair use goes out the window, and we lose the purpose of copyright, which is to spread ideas and promote discourse. If the technology and the new rules eliminate these kinds of legitimate uses, then you will limit a fair amount of the creativity that we would otherwise get as a society.”

Media Access Project is working with other organizations, such as Public Knowledge, Common Cause and the Center for Digital Democracy, to submit comments to the FCC during the public comment period.

Newsreader software continues to improve, allowing info-warriors better ways to find and assemble what they are looking for on the Web. RSS may be to the Web what TiVo was to TV. J.D. Lasica reviews the latest tools.

These days it’s not easy being an infowarrior. As the number of blogs and niche news sites continue to soar, how do you keep on top of everything?

While most Netizens still surf to Web sites to catch the latest postings, more users have found that to be a laborious, time-consuming way to browse. Instead they are installing “newsreader” software that constantly plucks feeds from Weblogs and news outlets and pulls them together onto a single screen.

That, in a nutshell, is RSS (short for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication). It’s a Web tool that lets you create a personalized news experience by building an ad hoc online network of friends, experts and news sources. Minutes after they post a new story or blog entry, it arrives on your screen as a headline and short summary or in its entirety. Call it “news that comes to you.”

After a couple of hours of subscribing to favorite feeds, your news grazing habits will be changed forever. Just as TiVo lets you watch TV more efficiently, RSS readers do the  same by letting you scan your favorite blogs and news sites faster or letting you cast your net over a wider range of material.

RSS readers, first introduced in 1999, are still fairly new and need some time to mature. What would the perfect RSS newsreader of the future look like? I’d like to see my newsreader offer far more flexibility in letting me prioritize and rank feeds from different sources, perhaps giving more weight to The New York Times than blogger Glenn Reynolds — or vice versa. I’d like RSS feeds assigned to different reporters and columnists, so I could read their writings almost instantly. I want relevant graphics and images in my RSS feeds. I’d like a better interface between my RSS reader and Weblog software so I can comment on the news faster and easier.

Some or all of that may be coming in future generations of the tools. For now, current RSS readers still help me manage my time better. To help you get productive, we’ve listed the RSS feeds of some popular blogs and sites at the end of this article. (Some RSS programs come loaded with dozens of pre-installed channels.)

Speedreading the Net is just the first step. How do you archive, access and creatively use the news you come across? We’ve checked out a handful of other productivity tools you’ll likely find useful.

FeedDemon
Site: http://feeddemon.com/
Use: RSS news reader for the PC
Cost: $29.95

One-man software company Nick Bradbury, best known for the Web editing tools HomeSite and TopStyle, launched FeedDemon late last year and it has already become a favorite.

Like most newsreaders, FeedDemon requires you to subscribe to individual news feeds. If you do this once, you can import your subscriptions list to other newsreaders later on. FeedDemon uses a three-pane, browser-like interface. At the left is the list of channels you subscribe to. At the right are the headlines and summaries for each channel you click on. By clicking on a headline, a third pane displays the Web page where the headline originated.

Newbies sometimes get overwhelmed by subscribing to dozens of channels, each of which can offer a dozen or more headline offerings per day. As you become an RSS veteran, you’ll learn not to sweat it. Instead of surfing to and scrolling through a dozen or more blogs or news sites, you’ll simply scan the headlines that interest you, ignore the rest — and take control of your media environment. You can set the newsreader to scan for updates at specified times throughout the day, letting you know when there are new items waiting for your attention, cutting down on time spent on surfing.

Three FeedDemon features set it apart from some other newsreaders. You can set up a special “watch” channel that searches news items for specific keywords. You can copy items to a news bin for later reference. And you can choose to read your news in a format set up to resemble a newspaper page.

NetNewsWire
Site: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
Use: RSS news reader for the Mac
Cost: NetNewsWire Lite is free; $39.95 for full version

NetNewsWire from developer Brent Simmons usually winds up atop any list of Mac users’ favorite newsreaders. The freeware Lite version is a good introduction to the RSS phenomenon. The setup is similar to other news readers: Subscribe to channels, which show up at the left of a browser pane; select a channel to see the latest news feeds at the right.

Both free and advanced versions of the program offer a sleek, simple interface, but the full version has several additional features, such as Weblog posting and editing. Any day now an upgrade will add new features, including tabbed browsing.

If you’re a Mac-head, NetNewsWire is all you need to get you up and running with RSS.

Other RSS news services

It’s best to sample several newsreaders to see which one fits your style. Some of these are free. For those that aren’t, always use the free trial before forking over your credit card. Here are several newsreaders that deserve a look: