More on the moves by the Recording Industry Association of America to crack down on the taping of music off the radio.
As reported last week, the ever paranoid RIAA fear that, as digital radio takes off in the US, music fans will be able to make better recordings via their radio sets. That, they reckon, could affect record sales as much as illegal downloading.
The RIAA says that one of the key players in US digital radio - Ibiquity Digital - has said it is quite easy to incorporate some kind of copyright protection on digital radio signals that somehow stop people recording tracks. To that end the RIAA was yesterday expected to ask US media regulator the FCC to force all US digital radio operators to use such copyright protection on their digital broadcasts.
The RIAA's opponents point out that digital radio has been growing in the UK for the best part of five years now and there has been no obvious impact on record sales. For his part RIAA boss Mitch Bainwol says he is very supportive of digital radio, but adds that "enthusiasm is not blind", whatever that means.