Government Mandated FM Chips In Mobile Phones: A Fake Fight - Shelly Palmer - MediaBizBloggers

Analog FM Radio chips in every mobile device Cell phones smart phones and app phones Mandated by Congress How Why When something sounds this stupid it begs for all of those questions After all there doesn39t seem to be a reason for the government to blast the digital mobile device industry back into the Stone Age Who would think this is a good idea Who would benefitAt times like this I like to quote Deep Throat quotFollow the moneyquot So let39s do just thatRadio stations in the United States pay a royalty for the music that they play on the air It39s known as a public performance royalty and it is mandated by copyright law The rates are set by a Copyright Royalty Tribunal See 17 USCS Sects 801 810 for detailsTo a layperson this sounds like a great plan Radio stations play music to attract an audience They measure and sell the audience to advertisers Then they pay a percentage of their income to Performing Rights Societies such as American Society of Composers Authors ampamp Publishers ASCAP Broadcast Music International BMI and SESAC which used to be the Society of European Stage Authors ampamp Composers but is now just SESAC who in turn distribute the money to the composers and publishers of the music Perfect Right No not exactly There are several parties involved with the production of a song who are not paid under this system including the musicians singers and most importantly for this discussion the recorded music companiesAs you probably know the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA represents the recorded music companies Their idea is to charge radio broadcasters a new 1 royalty roughly 100 million a year industrywide and distribute it to the other interested parties in the music industry namely the recorded music companiesIt may not surprise you to learn that the National Association of Broadcasters NAB the trade association that represents the radio stations is opposed to this additional royaltyHow opposed When is the last time someone asked you to write a check for 100 million dollars that you never had to write before Not only is this a real fight it has been going on in one form or another for quite a whileNow if you were the NAB and you really didn39t want to pay the RIAA what would you do Would you invoke the teachings of Niccolamp242 Machiavelli Maybe resort to a plot worthy of Franz Kafka No no When you39re in a real fight the only possible strategy comes from the pen of Mario Puzo speaking through his character Michael Corleone quotMy father taught me many things here he taught me in this room He taught me keep your friends close but your enemies closerquot Yep when in doubt use The Godfather It39s simple it39s direct and it39s just what the NAB is doingThe NAB reached out to the RIAA and both organizations went to Congress and proposed the inclusion of let39s say it again Government mandated FM chips in mobile phones It39s brilliant And it has created a really good fake fightTo cozy up to the RIAA and get them to stop looking to the broadcasters for extra royalty money the NAB partnered with them and made this proposal It39s the McGuffin Sure the NAB quotbelievesquot that mandated FM chips will be in the interest of public safety Read Dennis Wharton39s blog post on the official NAB websitePublic safety Are you kidding me The vast majority of local radio stations are unmanned and could not possibly respond to any kind of public safety issue FM radio tuners require antennas and on a mobile device that means a headset is required for reception the antenna is in the headset cord I39m not going to burn battery life on my phone during a crisis because it is likely to work as a voice device and a txt device and it may be my only hope of real communication And not to put too fine a point on it I was personally less than 20 blocks away from the World Trade Center on 911 I live in NYC and at no time during the attack was any version of the Emergency Broadcast System used by any broadcaster TV was working as was cable Internet cell service etc There were some outages but the Mayor used 100 of the communications tools available to him to assure New Yorkers and the rest of the world that New York had a fully functioning government in place and that our Bravest and Finest were on it And they wereI could go on and on with examples where radio failed to inform the public during disasters large and small manmade and natural but that would be playing right into the brilliant twist of the NAB39s planChips in cell phones isn39t about public safety it39s a call for reinforcements And it is a strategy worthy of Don Corleone himselfIn a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees dated 20 August 2010 leaders of the mobile phone wireless and consumer electronics industry associations said what the NAB wanted quotIt is simply wrong for two entrenched industries to resolve their differences by agreeing to burden a third industry which has no relationship to or other interest in the performance royalty dispute with a costly illconsidered and unnecessary new mandatequotNow it39s seven to one The NAB with the enlisted help of the CTIAThe Wireless Association the Telecommunications Industry Association TechAmerica the Consumer Electronics Association the Information Technology Industry Council and the Rural Cellular Association against the RIAAMandated analog FM chips in cell phones is a really really bad idea Everyone knows it And with all of the lobbying firepower lined up against it it has very little chance of actually happening In the end I am truly impressed by the NAB39s use of misdirection and prestidigitation How to get others to kick your enemy39s butt Kudos guys way to save a 100 mil a yearShelly Palmer is the host of MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer a daily show featuring news you can use about technology media ampamp entertainment He is the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2008 New York House Press and the upcoming Get Digital Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the 21st Century Economy 2009 Lake House Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy Awards For information about Get Digital Classes visit httpwwwshellypalmercomseminars Watch Digital Life with Shelly Palmer Tuesdays at 10p ET on WNBC39s NY Nonstop httpwwwshellypalmercomdigitallifeRead all Shelly39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Shelly Palmer MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Government Mandated FM Chips In Mobile Phones: A Fake Fight - Shelly Palmer - MediaBizBloggers

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