Digital Freedom Defended

Jon Lech Johansen's work-around to allow music and other content from iTunes stores to be played on non-iPod MP3 players is one shot across the bow against digital rights restrictions placed on consumers. Here's another: a national campaign on several fronts to fight the attempts of record companies and movie studios to ban new digital technologies.

A varied group of consumers, artists, and technology companies have come together to launch the Digital Freedom Campaign, a national initiative to look out for consumers'—and electronic makers'—rights to use technology that allows consumers to enjoy content they have purchased when and where they want.

"The campaign will target legislation and lawsuits designed to place crippling restrictions or impose excessive fees on technologies that allow individuals to enjoy lawfully obtained music, video, and other content," Digital Freedom's release says.

More than a dozen organizations representing consumers, film producers, independent recording artists, and electronics manufacturers are working together on the campaign to reach out to lawmakers and consumers about individual digital rights they say are being threatened by the music and movie industries. (The Consumer Electronics Association, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are among them.)

So what tops the agenda? Legislation that aims to ban Tivo-like technology for satellite radio subscribers, allowing them to record and listen to music and content at a later time.

• The PERFORM Act - This Congressional legislation would require technical limitations on satellite radio broadcasting of music to allow only "reasonable" recording, though what reasonable means is not clear.

• The Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act of 2006 - This one would impose technical conditions on satellite and high-definition radio to limit in-home consumer recording practices, which the group says "have been in place since the tape recorder."

• The Copyright Modernization Act of 2006 - This Congressional legislation would require all incidental copies of music downloaded on your computer to have a separate license from the original copy. These licenses would be required for every digital copy made in the transmission of digital media, making what are now legal downloads "virtually impossible."

Concerned? The result of this long-running debate over consumer rights vs. copyright and license protection has got to provide a way for consumers to listen and watch content they have legally purchased when and where they choose.

So, where do you stand on digital freedom? What consumer rights do you want to see preserved—or widened—in the years to come?