Check Your Ted

It hurts to say this, but I've got to give Senators Ted Stevens (of "Bridge to Nowhere" fame) and John "Phone Jamming Election Scandal" Sununu a little love. The two teamed up to slap the RIAA around on the issue of the Audio Flag, which would pretty much fuck anything you want to do with radio. From the EFF's article:

The first was the appearance of Senator John Sununu, the Republican Junior Senator for New Hampshire. Sununu, an MIT grad, interrupted to ask the question so far unconsidered by his colleagues: Do we need this mandate at all?

[...]

"The suggestion is that if we don't do this, it will stifle creativity. Well...we have now an unprecedented wave of creativity and product and content development...new business models, and new methodologies for distributing this content. The history of government mandates is that it always restricts innovation...why would we think that this one special time, we're going to impose a statutory government mandate on technology, and it will actually encourage innovation?"

Then, eighty-something octogenarian Ted Stevens, whose daughter bought him an iPod, starting asking simple questions about whether or not the flag would let him record a radio show and listen to it later, among other things. The answer, according to the EFF: "This flag, which was sold to Congress to impede piracy, appeared to be designed primarily to control and inconvenience law-abiding, ripping, mixing, modern-day Senators."

Let's hope this helps down the Audio and Broadcast flags. Now just imagine if someone had gotten Ted Stevens a gay marriage for Christmas...

(via the WFMU Blog)

Posted at 10:30 AM