Satellite Radio Recording Blocked by New Legislation?

A trio of proposed bills began circulating this week on Capitol Hill. Legislation that would place recording limitations on portable satellite radio players, handicapping their functionality. The three bills are the “Analog Content Security Preservation Act of 2005” (PDF), the “Broadcast Flag Authorization Act of 2005” (PDF) and the “HD Radio Content Protection Act of 2005.” (link anyone?). Apparently, all were either authored or co-authored by the MPAA and/or the RIAA.

The “Analog Content Security Preservation Act of 2005” is meant to plug the “Analog Hole” (which is when copy protection is lost during conversions from digital to analog and back to digital). But the “HD Radio Content Protection Act of 2005” is the real kicker. It’s funny it’s called the “”HD Radio Content Protection Act” - since it’s also all about crippling the Satellite Radio industry. The HDRCPA is looking to prevent devices like the XM2Go series or the Sirius S50. The record-and-go capabilities of these devices would be outlawed if the bill goes into effect. The proposed bill would amend the law to ensure that devices like the MyFi would be designed to prevent transferring music or other content from the device to the outside world, and would also limit their ability to store content to a few “permitted recording” features.

This is getting ridiculous.