Dear Senators,

As your constituent, a resident and technology worker in Silicon Valley, one of the seats of technological innovation in the United States, I am registering my opposition to the Broadcast Flag amendment that's likely to introduced today in the Senate Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations subcommittee mark-up today (6/21/05), or in full committee on Thursday (6/23/05).

As you may be aware, the Broadcast Flag, as previously mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (at the behest of the MPAA), was recently struck down by unanimous decision in the Courts. http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200505/04-1037b.pdf

Having lost this in the Courts, the proponents of the Broadcast Flag, namely the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) and the related copyright cartels, are once again resorting to "under the radar" lobbying efforts to foist the Broadcast Flag via a last minute amendment to the appropriations bill without debate.

I am opposed to the Broadcast Flag for the following reasons:

1. It makes digital TV hardware more expensive and less capable, and will likely impede rather than accelerating the digital TV transition.
2. It unfairly gives Hollywood movie studios a permanent veto over technological innovation.  It will force American innovators to beg the FCC for permission before adding new features to TV.
3. It supposedly is meant to deter "piracy," but instead will only allow  "closed" hardware to record free over the air digital TV programming.  This may include programming from educational TV, distance learning, and the like.
4. The Broadcast Flag will effectively stop any innovation in PC "open source" software to possibly record over-the-air digital programming. This will effectively neutralize the PC as a digital TV platform (as a digital video recorder like TiVo).  Imagine if how different the economy might have been had the VCR been prevented from reaching the market.

Please oppose any attempts in the Senate appropriations Committee that would disrupt technological innovation through the implementation of the Broadcast Flag.  This is too important an issue which will affect all Americans, and should not be inserted in an omnibus bill at the last moment without thoughtful debate and discussion of consequences.

I appreciate your attention on this matter.