The Copyright Modernization Act (HR 6052), which seeked to change the rules on the licensing and delivery of digital music, has died. XM Satellite Radio ran a grassroots campaign earlier this week, in a mass email sent to all subscribers, urging readers to oppose this legislation.

In the email, XM claimed that HR 6052 would "drive up our costs and stop us from offering radios that allow you to record XM channels for your later listening - in the same way that TiVo allows you to record TV for later viewing."

Well, it's dead. When the bill's sponsor, Senator Lamar Smith, said he'd like to delay HR 6052 until next year, "a collective sigh of relief was let out from a few rows of audience, comprised of consumer device manufacturers and some service providers," according to Public Knowledge.

[Public Knowledge via About The Image] 

NAB President and CEO David Rehr wrote a letter (PDF via SSG) to Sirius and XM, that coincided with his opening speech at yesterday's NAB Radio Show, where he called on the satellite radio industry to "voluntarily withdraw and replace all noncompliant satellite radio devices in circulation."

"...now that the FCC has approved the resumed manufacture of newly compliant satellite radio receivers, NAB urges XM and Sirius to take the next logical step of voluntarily withdrawing and replacing all noncompliant receivers already in circulation, to resolve existing interference to terrestrial radio service," Rehr wrote in his letter.

In his speech, he didn't just "urge" XM and Sirius to recall all non-compliant satellite radios, but he also went on to say that the interfering FM modulators are making satellite radio "both a subscription and a free service," and that satellite radio as a result "cannot have it both ways" when it comes to being beyond FCC indecency regulations.

Oh but David Rehr didn't stop there. He goes on to claim that the NAB isn't afraid of the competition because "satellite radio says it has at most 10 million subscribers, notwithstanding those 500,000 subscribers in empty car lots. But 260 million people listened to broadcast radio last week alone!"

You can read the full speech here. Feel free to email David Rehr, at drehr@nab.org and let him know what you think.

The Songwriters Guild of America has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief supporting the RIAA in their lawsuit against XM Satellite Radio. The brief filing is simply the volunteering to offer information to help a court decide a matter. Recall that the HRRC & the CEA has backed XM in a related amicus brief filing (PDF).

XM says that their latest generation XM2go devices comply with the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act, which protects the listener's right to save recordings of live broadcasts. The Songwriters Guild of America says the AHRA was never intended to cover digital download services - even though digital broadcasts are specifically cited in the AHRA.

[via Radio World]