The Bright Young Things at Downhill Battle have something for you to do.

The Betamax ruling is the only thing that protects your right to own a VCR, tape recorder, CD-burner, DVD-burner, iPod, or TiVo. It's that important. But new legislation that's being pushed through the Senate by lobbyists for the music and movie industries would override the Betamax decision and create a huge liability for any business that makes products which can copy sound or video. This legislation (formerly known as the INDUCE Act) would essentially give Hollywood veto power over a huge range of new technologies. And if they get this power, they'll definitely use it: just as they tried to stomp out the VCR in the 70's and 80's, the music and movie industries want to force all content to go through their own restricted channels.

This is big important shit. Technology and culture are inextricably wedded going forward in this world, and for anyone who hopes to furthur [sic] the progress of humanity though the development of more humane, progressive, connective and throughful culture -- that's me -- this law is a dagger through the heart.

We have an opportunity here the dawn of the 21st century. With the broadening reach of the net an the democratizing implications of its decentralized nature, we can create for the first time since the early days of the printing press a truly Public Media. However, if laws are enacted -- some are already in place -- which lock down the channels of information and establish large swaths of proprietary "black box" data, this will cement the kind of corporate dominance we now see in the broadcast world.

That's why it's important to participate in this call-in day, and support the mission of those entities (like downhillbattle) which are attempting to promote the interests of the Public and the People in the world of new media.