IP: RADIO FLEES TO THE NET

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

                               VTW BillWatch #44


       VTW BillWatch: A weekly newsletter tracking US Federal legislation
         affecting civil liberties.  BillWatch is published about every
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                   BillWatch is produced and published by the
                 Voters Telecommunications Watch (vtw () vtw org)
                           
                 Issue #44, Date: Mon Apr 29 00:21:23 EDT 1996


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___________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION FROM THE EDITOR


by Shabbir J. Safdar, VTW Board (Brooklyn, NY)


RADIO FLEES TO THE NET
This week I sat on a panel with Jonah Seiger (CDT) and Dave Farber (EFF)
at a convention of college radio broadcasters.  This was an amazing
experience, as folks in radio have years of experience dealing with
free speech issues.


As you may know, the struggle for free speech the last year dealt
with a question of regulatory models.  Should the net be regulated more
like radio, or more like print?  The net is much more like a bookstore,
and so the answer should be print.  However those that support net
censorship don't understand that.


Enter the college radio broadcasters.  Because of their proximity to
universities which are often well-wired, they are some of the most
net-savvy stations on the Internet.  They're looking forward to
using the Internet for netcasting, because of the more friendly
regulatory environment.  The arguments that have been used to censor
radio are, hopefully for them, not true for netcast radio.


The net isn't pervasive, and like all other net content, there are
many ways of restricting children from it without resorting to
censorship.  Radio could enjoy the benefits of this new environment,
and the possibility of this should urge us on.  Remember when everyone
thought, for a minute, about their own radio station?  Like every other
thing on the net, you could be your own radio broadcaster.  As a good
rule of thumb, anything that allows more people to publish and converse
is a good thing.  I'm looking forward to it.


It's always nice to meet new allies in our fight, and I know this isn't
the last time.


This issue can be found in HTML form at
URL:http://www.vtw.org/billwatch/issue.44.html