Gordon Smith: protecting big media from the free market

Over at KazaBlog, blogger Andrew Kaza has the story of Senator Gordon Smith's latest outrage -- which has apparently gone unreported in our state's media.

And the story is this...our Republican Senator Gordon Smith wants to kill the next iPod. Or DVD. Or...you name the innovation. It was all protected in the past by a somewhat archaic legal concept called "fair use". And our moralistic, supposedly free-market loving Senator has introduced a bill that would change that historical definition. And try to make consumer electronics manufacturers pay for something that they cannot quantify...a new market. And to force you, as a consumer to pay for ANY and ALL uses of content going forward.

Why isn't the local media covering this big story? According to Kaza, it's all about self-interested bias:

Big money wanted a favor...and Smith is all too willing to give it to them. In this case, big BROADCAST money. And therein lies the explanation for why NO major media outlet in Oregon is bothering to report on Smith's handy (to them) little legislation. Namely because they are all behind it (yes, even the b'Oregonian's owners, Newhouse, have significant broadcast interests).

Read the rest at KazaBlog, and discuss over there.

Jan. 31, 2006 Posted in elsewhere.