RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

The Broadcast Flag in a Nutshell: Consumers are the enemy

Broadcast flag bad! Just read this statement by the FCC's Kenneth Ferree, explaining to Reuters why the broadcast flag is benign: "It will simply prevent consumers from illegal piracy, from mass distribution over the Internet, which is the problem with music file sharing."

Okay, the consumer is the enemy. The FCC is in the position of protecting the industries it is supposed to regulate, protecting their existing business models when they need to change. Somebody should remind Mr. Ferree that the FCC works for the consumers, who are also called citizens, not the companies, although companies are made up of citizens.

Here's the problem of music filesharing: Pricing and use restrictions made legal use irrational. That's not to say that acting lawfully is irrational, but that the sellers of music made a lousy offer, so people used their previous copies of music and ignored the "new" system because it was the same as the old one, to borrow a phrase from The Who. And we shouldn't get fooled again.

Broadcast flag bad.