“The PERFORM Act” or “Why Sixty-Year-old Senators Shouldn’t Write Tech Laws”

They’re at it again.

The “honorable” Senators Feinstein, Biden, Graham and Alexander have published a bill that, among other things, would force podcasters to add DRM to their podcasts. Even if they don’t use any copyrighted music or any music at all.

Now, to ordinary folks like you and I, this is a pretty big deal. Once podcasters start having to add DRM to their podcasts the whole thing starts to become cost prohibitive. Not to mention the fact that artists who use the Creative Commons or the Podsafe Music Network to distribute their works to podcasters outside of the normal media outlets would have their rights violated.

So I decided to write the Senators proposing this bill:

Senator,

I am disheartened to hear of your support for the Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act. This act would not only stifle the creativity of millions of people, but is unenforceable and would be violating the rights of musicians.

You may not be aware, but there are many musicians who use special licenses that allow people to use their works in podcasts without fear of legal retribution. These musicians view podcasters as part of their promotions engine, and several have found commercial success using this method. However, many of these same artist balk at the idea of adding DRM to their creations. They want their music to be heard by as many people as possible, and DRM limits the number of people who can hear it. Forcing podcasters to add DRM would stifle creativity of some of the brightest up-and-coming music stars.

Secondly, if a podcaster is using music that is licensed under the Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org) or a similar license, it’s not the government’s place to force DRM upon them. In fact, I’d say that it would violate the rights of creators to license their songs however they want. In effect, the government would be infringing upon the rights of content creators by trying to create a system that prevents these rights from being infringed upon!

Also, the number of podcasts is exploding. According to FeedBurner, a widely used RSS host, the number of podcasts has surpassed the number of terrestrial radio stations worldwide! The Justice Department would be tasked with monitoring every single one of these podcasts and determining if the DRM applied, if any is applied at all, is “reasonably available and economically reasonable.” In a medium that costs essentially nothing to start using (most computers come with all the equipment you need, and the software to podcast is freely available), “economically reasonable” DRM would have to be completely free.

Finally, DRM has been shown to be completely ineffective in preventing copyright infringement. For example, the supposedly “unbreakable” DRM of the new HD-DVD format has already been broken, and the first films released on HD-DVD have shown up on illicit file-sharing sites. Forcing DRM upon innocent podcasters would simply complicate the lives of innovative, creative people while doing nothing to prevent the illegal copying of music. This also doesn’t take into account podcasts that originate or are hosted outside of the United States, and therefore outside of the jurisdiction of the Justice Department.
Senator, I am urging you to withdraw your support for this bill. For all the reasons I’ve stated above it is a bad law to have on the books. I also urge you to please familiarize yourself with the issues you write bills to address beyond what industry lobbyists tell you.

Thank you,

Paul Rothrock

I urge everyone who reads this to write something similar to the respective Senators. Here are the pages where you can contact them:

• Senator Feinstein
• Senator Biden
• Senator Graham
• Senator Alexander

Tags: Computers, Politics