Stop the Broadcast Flag Mandate

Coders! Designers! Artists! Businessfolk!
Computer Owners! Users/Builders of the Net! Citizens! And All the
Tribes!Right now, the Federal Communications Commission of the
United States of America is preparing to hand down a regulation,
the so-called Broadcast Flag Mandate. This regulation would make it
a felony to own, sell or use important free software tools of
communication, such as GNU Radio, Project GNU's software-defined
radio program. The issue here has nothing to do with copyright
infringement, despite the claims of the RIAA, the MPAA and the AAP;
the Broadcast Flag Mandate would make purely private use of GNU
Radio a felony. GNU Radio is a program that allows any computer
equipped with an antenna and an analog-to-digital card to function
as both a radio and TV receiver. Both analog and digital broadcasts
can be received and played once the antenna, the card and the
program are installed. GNU Radio is not yet complete; as of today
GNU Radio cannot receive and play digital TV broadcasts, but within
the year, G* willing, it will be completed.Why Is It Important to Stop the Broadcast Flag
Mandate?It is important to stop the Broadcast Flag Mandate because,
if promulgated, it would set a precedent allowing the government of
the United States to directly dictate exactly what you do with your
computer, even in the privacy of your own house. It would set the
precedent that the government of the United States may directly
outlaw the production, sale and use of untrammeled computers like
the one billion "personal computers" that have been freely produced
and sold up until today. It would set the precedent that the
government of the United States may directly enforce that all
computers sold must contain both spy machinery and remote control
machinery--machinery that would be controlled by Infotainment
Central and The Secret Police. Under the Broadcast Flag Mandate, it
would be a felony to disable the spy and remote control
machinery.What Is to Be Done This Week?The FCC will accept comments regarding the Broadcast Flag
Mandate until 5:00 pm EST, Friday, December 6, 2002. You can send
comments from the
NY Fair Use
site and/or follow the official instructions below.Readings

• The
  EFF has done the major work in exposing the
  plot to
  impose the Broadcast Flag Mandate.
  In Section 4.12 of the Final Report of the Broadcast
  Protection Discussion Group, the Englobulators propose that the
  Broadcast Flag Mandate should create two classes of
  Americans:
  
  1. a small class consisting of licensed employees of
     certain cartels and monopolies, who would be allowed to use general
     purpose computers; and
  2. the rest of us, who would not be allowed to own and
     privately use general purpose computers.

  It is important to understand Section 4.12 because the
  Englobulators have claimed and will continue to claim the Broadcast
  Flag Mandate would not affect private use of computers. But the
  Englobulators know this claim is false. They know that the
  Broadcast Flag Mandate would so cripple computers that they demand
  a special exemption for themselves so they may still use
  untrammeled computers.

• Brett Wynkoop alerts the
  Ancient
  Order of Hams about the Mandate. This discussion is worth
  looking at for several excellent posts from people who understand
  the Broadcast Flag Mandate would mean the end of amateur work in
  digital radio and TV. There are also posts from people who simply
  cannot believe the Broadcast Flag Mandate actually has been
  proposed.
• Declan McCullough asks,
  "Why have
  you not written to the FCC?", and
  Slashdot
  responds.
• The
  Digital Speech
  Project presents some of the effects and some of the
  history of the proposed Broadcast Flag Mandate.
• GNU
  Radio speaks out, including
  Eric
  Blossom's clear statement of
  what
  the Broadcast Flag Mandate would mean for GNU Radio.

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Dear FCC, I don't want to pay more for my phone. Please
remove the surcharge and let competition rule. Thank you.JoeJay Sulzberger is the
corresponding secretary of
LXNY, New York's Free
Computing Organization.

email: jays@panix.com