[Of course it's hardly clear that the FCC has the statutory authority to impose "indecency" restrictions on satellite radio if it wanted to, and constitutional hurdles are another reason for Powell to say this. But it's still good that he did. More broadly, the existence of two different regulatory regimes does cause an imbalance, and all else being equal, a competitive advance for satellite radio. If the imbalance ever corrects itself, I hope it'll be in the less-regulated direction rather than the Pacification of satellite. --Declan] --- http://news.com.com/FCC+chief+buoys+VoIP%2C+satellite+radio/2100-7353_3-5515823.html?tag=nefd.top FCC chief buoys VoIP, satellite radio Published: January 6, 2005, 3:09 PM PST By David Becker Staff Writer, CNET News.com LAS VEGAS--Michael Powell had a rare bit of good news Thursday for shock jock Howard Stern, saying the government had no interest in censoring satellite radio... "I think it's a dangerous thing to start talking about extending government oversight of content to other media just to level the playing field," Powell said. [...] Broadcast radio operators have made several unsuccessful attempts to restrict satellite radio content. But Powell said the merging of media formats and the Internet and changing attitudes favor minimal oversight. [...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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