Today is World Radio Day, and when most of us think of radio, we think of music. That’s why today, Congress received a letter signed by about 300 performing artists asking lawmakers to pass the long-overdue American Music Fairness Act (AMFA) this session. “Each year, AM/FM radio stations play nearly a billion songs. And each year, giant radio corporations rake in ...
Two bills are back in motion in the U.S. Congress—the AM Radio in Every Vehicle Act, and the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA). As I argued in a post for The Hill last May, if the first bill is to become law, then the second bill should also become law. While the AM radio provision arguably has some public-serving benefits, ...
The so-called “copyright war” began years before I joined the fight, arguably in 1999, when defenders of the P2P platform Napster equated music piracy with liberty. Thus, rather than a rational discussion about the interdependence of creators and technology, Big Tech cultivated a syncretic foundation from which to sell the paradox that devaluing individual rights was somehow good for democracy. ...
One story that trended (e.g., on BlueSky) about TikTok’s day of shutdown and revival can be summarized thus: the intent to ban TikTok was a stunt cooked up by Republicans so that Trump could pretend to save it at the last minute. Thus, it was never about national security but was yet another grab of another platform for hard-right ideologues—and ...
I recognize the psychological need to believe the American Republic will survive the coming four years, and I freely admit to being the biggest cynic in almost any room. But if the analogy is a shipwreck, we are already treading water with no ship or shore on the horizon. “Democracy lives in the people,” say the more hopeful pundits. Perhaps. ...
