Howard Stern is going to satellite radio where there’s no FCC? Huh? Why no FCC reg’s here? - Jinx
The satellites aren’t in the US, for one.
For the same reason that cable TV isn’t regulated. Yet.
Because the FCC regulates the “free and open” airwaves. Satellite radio and cable TV are neither. The broadcast spectrum owned by the public and acting as an agent of the public, the FCC regulates what goes there. Programs you pay to receive are not part of that and as such aren’t regulated.
Well, there are still techical rules for sattelite service (power, frequecy, bandwidth, etc) that the FCC regulates.
Brian
Hmmm… unflagged ships can be attacked as pirates. What about satellites? Couldn’t I get Liberia to launch a Liberian flagged satellite for me to broadcast into the United States?
I remember hearing Howard Stern say one time that the FCC was created for a specific purpose and that it is no longer applicable to modern radio-or rather, it shouldn’t be applicable.
I can’t remember exactly what his reasons were though. It had something to do with the small number of radio stations in the beginning of radio…
As I understand it, the FCC was created in the 1920’s to safeguard the theoretically “scarce” resource of the broadcast EM spectrum (that is, radio, and later, television). It’s mandate is to ensure that the airwaves, which the government claims to be the property of the American people, are use in the public interest. Aside from making sure the airwaves aren’t too crowded (by keeping “pirate” radio sataions off the air) they also enfore standards of content. However, satellite radio is broadcast on a part of the spectrum that is only regulated technically by the FCC (I can’t recall if they bought the frequencies or if their operating frequencies are open for general use). Since it’s content is not in the FCC’s perview, they have no control over what is said or done there. The same goes for cable, excpet that it’s not broadcast at all, and so the FCC has little to do with it one way or the other.
ugh…please excute the various and sundry typos above…mustn’t try to listen, type and think all at once…
The first thing I thought about was that a person must be 18 years or older to subscribe to satellite radio. Now, this makes no distinction as to who may listen. A child could legally buy a radio or TV in the United States. However, to sign the contract of a cable TV or satellite radio provider, they must be 18.
I believe Howard Stern was created for a particular purpose which has since become meaningless.
Looking over the responses briefly, isn’t satellite radio a free and open airwave? Am I misunderstanding the definition of “free and open”? (Does “free” mean as in a lack of a monetary value, or “free” as in not dependent upon a medium, such as a cable, for transmission?)
Also, if that is not regulated, would a jamming signal from inside the US be equally unregulated? I mean, is jamming an unregulated signal really jamming…in the eyes of the FCC? Would they have any grounds by which to flex any muscle against such jamming? - Jinx
Free and open means transmittable through the air using the electromagnetic spectrum. The FCC has control over the entire usable spectrum and what happens in a particular part of spectrum depends on both physics and other things. For example, the AM-FM-VHF-UHF parts of the spectrum are all heavily regulated. They can also be received by all without fee and is not broadcasted with any sort of encryption/compression. (At least for now. HDTV has compression and a very controversial broadcast flag that is GD fodder.) The CB bands are not regulated at all, and any interference you have you just have to live with. Same with the part of the spectrum that 802.11b/g works on. I actually linked in Great Debates to a Slashdot article about some university in Texas attempting to regulate student use of 802.11b/g for private WAPs. Unfortunately, that thread never really took off. I believe that XM and Sirius paid for exclusive use of a part of the spectrum, with broadcasts that can only be received with a specialized receiver registered with the company (they use serial numbers.) The broadcasts are also compressed with some propriatary algorithm.
Wasn’t there a case where a guy picked up satellite TV (and I don’t mean open satellite, but DirecTV or the like) without paying because they were broadcasting without encryption?
Okay, this is twice now. Free and open is exactly that–without having to pay money to recieve the signal (except for the actual equipment needed to receive the signal) and without any encryption. Satellite radio is not free and open, because you have to pay a subscription fee for your receiver to work and the signal is compressed using a propretary algorithm (and might be encrypted as well.) Theoretically, you could buy a satellite antenna and crack the compression/encryption, but I doubt it’d be worth it, and you’d probably run afoul of several laws, including the DMCA.
asterion said but didn’t emphasize strongly enough that the recipient must deliberately subscribe to satellite radio. You can’t just put up a receiver and pick up the signals over the airwaves. That’s one of the major reasons the FCC doesn’t regulate cable tv either. If you’ve gone out and paid for it, it’s not the federal government’s business what evil garbage you want to listen to. If you want to protest, you can do so as an individual consumer to your provider, but the government doesn’t back you up.
On preview, he says it more strongly.
The Federal Communications Commission replaced the Federal Radio Commission in 1935. The FCC was given the power to regulate radio (in the broad sense) and interstate/international wireline communications. That gives them authority over just about everything. The FCC does not currently regulate indecent speech on satellite and cable, but that may change in the future if Congress decides to give the FCC that authority. There have been proposals in Congress to do just that. Obscene speech is already prohibited and has no constitutional protection.
So would this imply that if someone set up a satellite radio or TV broadcast system that was non-subscription, non-encrypted (just like regular TV broadcasts), the FCC could claim to regulate the content of this system?
Does the FCC regulate Canadian “free and open” radio broadcasts that are heard in Michigan, etc? Isn’t it relevant that the satellites are actually not over the US? (At least I don’t think they are.)