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Kyle Wiens reports at Wired that mesh networks in communities all over the world may be in danger from an unnoticed line of regulations from the Federal Communications Commission. In March, 2014 the FCC updated requirements for U-NII devices using 5 Ghz bandwidth that includes many Wi-Fi devices and routers. It took over a year for anyone to notice a bit of regulatory language that might affect the open source community:

“Manufacturers must implement security features in any digitally modulated devices capable of operating in any of the U-NII bands, so that third parties are not able to reprogram the device to operate outside the parameters for which the device was certified.”

The rule is meant to target movies theaters turning radio waves into a white noise generator that blocked Wi-Fi/Bluetooth within a 1500 foot radius, and others acting in bad faith. But this March the FCC published guidelines to help manufacturers stay within the law, with another worrying line: “Describe in detail how the device is protected from “flashing” and the installation of third-party firmware such as DD-WRT.” DD-WRT is free, Linux-based firmware for wireless routers, used in those community mesh networks that allow cheap access to broadband. But the FCC told TechDirt’s Karl Bode that modifications and open source software are fine, “as long as they do not add the functionality to modify the underlying operating characteristics of the RF parameters.” But Weins worries that chip manufacturers will say, "the easiest thing for us to do is lock down all the middleware rather than worry about where to draw the line." That means that folks experimenting, tinkering, and changing electronic devices that use software defined radio signals will have a tougher time innovating. “In at least the last 5 years, Amateur Radio operators have found new and inventive ways to use these inexpensive devices to build broadband networks in support of community events, and to prepare for deployment of these devices for emergency incidents,” wrote ham radio operator James Kinter, Jr. “…Third party software is the basis for many of the Amateur Radio projects, that we then expand and customise for our own projects to easily allow us to build these projects without reinventing the wheel.”

Incompetent @RichLowry lost it tonight on @FoxNews. He should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2015

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Running for the Republican nomination for president, so far Donald Trump has made very few policy proposals, and almost none having to do with communications policy. But on Sept. 23, Trump made a proposal that would change the Federal Communications Commission in a major way. His proposal was for the FCC to regulate speech on cable television. Currently, the FCC regulates speech over the airwaves, with vulgar language relegated to "safe harbor" between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when children are asleep. But cable television does not use the public airwaves directly to get signals to the public. So the FCC did not tell Comedy Central to bleep Jon Stewart's profanity, they did that (sometimes) on their own, so advertisers would not be upset. Of course, Trump's proposal didn't come in a speech announcing a new idea, but in a veiled threat on Twitter. Trump is currently boycotting Fox News, and Sept. 23 National Review editor Rich Lowry appeared on the channel and, saying how candidate Carly Fiorina beat up on Trump at last week's Republican presidential debate said, "Let's be honest: Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon — and he knows it," on "The Kelly File." Trump fired back soon after on Twitter with, "Incompetent @RichLowry lost it tonight on @FoxNews. He should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!" So, perhaps it was not a policy proposal, but the off-the-cuff ramblings of someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. We report, you decide.

[caption width="264" align="alignright"] Neil deGrasse-Tyson speaks via radio waves with Edward Snowden. From "Star Talk" website.[/caption]The Fermi paradox, thought up by physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael H. Hart, is the apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, and the lack of any evidence for such civilizations. Now Edward Snowden -- the man who leaked evidence that the United States has been trawling the phone records of Americans for years -- may have an answer to the Fermi paradox in computer encryption. On celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's "StarTalk" audio show this week, Snowden suggests that a need to keep communications secure could mean that alien signals are simply too well encrypted to be distinguished from background noise.

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In a July 16, 2015 Voice of America press release quotes new Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari: “My daily life starts at 6 a.m. by dedicating 30 minutes to listening to Voice of America. I am an avid listener of VOA because you are fair, professional, and balanced, which all add up to the fact that you are the station I love to fear." The British Broadcasting Corporation wants to get back to its glory days of providing "fair, professional, and balanced" reports to regimes around the globe that do not want to hear such tales. Faced with $1 billion in budget cuts from a conservative government, the BBC now wants to expand its worldwide services, specifically targeting listeners in countries with little free media. "Arguing that it had a mission to uphold the values of 'democracy and liberty,' the corporation said it would set up new shortwave services to broadcast into those countries with a deficit of both, namely North Korea, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It will boost its digital presence in Russia, where it may set up a satellite-television channel, and beef up its Arabic service," The Economist reported. The BBC's budget is also hurt by £240m a year in costs being transferred from the Foreign Office to the radio service last year, a nod that what was once propaganda is now more like journalism. But not all are happy about the budget battle over the BBC. Gary D. Rawnsley, Professor of Public Diplomacy at Aberystwyth University, writes in the USC Center on Public Diplomacy blog, "In announcing the creation of a satellite TV service for Russian speakers and a daily radio news program for North Korea, the Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall, is in danger of crossing the fine line between public diplomacy and propaganda." Rawnsley says Hall is wrong to claim the BBC has a mission to uphold liberty. "The BBC World Service has one commitment only: to provide timely, impartial, and accurate news and information for its listeners around the world. The BBC is not an instrument of Cold War politics; and it is not a mechanism for the promotion of democracy in any area of the world. It is a model of journalism that is the envy of news broadcasters across the globe."

[caption width="350" align="alignleft"] From Blackart.net.[/caption]"This Week in Radio News" is a magazine show with radio headlines about radio waves, features on radio art, and interviews. This episode is for the week of Sept. 19-26, 2015.

Mendi and Keith Obadike have a show called "Numbers Station [Furtive Movements]," at the Ryan Lee Gallery in New York City through Oct. 10. Host Tom Roe interviews them about how they are using NYC police stop-and-frisk data, and turning those numbers into sound in the form of a spy "numbers station." Other radio stories about radio waves this week: the U.S. Navy agrees to limit sonar for whales, dolphins; AM radio industry trying to get on FM; Fair Use wins in 9th Circuit Court; Company made music piracy ad, pirates music; and Robert Adrian, co-founder of Kunstradio, dies.

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John Eggerton in Broadcasting and Cable reports that the Federal Communications Commission unanimously decided to let radio and TV outlets post contest information online if they choose, rather than having to read sometimes-lengthy text with fast-talking announcing on-air. The change was announced at the FCC's Sept. 17 meeting, and broadcasters still must provide timely and accurate information about contests, periodically announcing a web address on-air for more information, and creating a tab or link on the home page to any contest information. The FCC has long regulated broadcast contests to eliminate consumer fraud. "We are moving old concepts to new realities," said FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. Read the full story in Broadcasting and Cable.

[caption width="497" align="alignright"] From Wikipedia.[/caption]Brian Palmer in On Earth magazine reports that the U.S. Navy has agreed to reduce sonar sounds in the Pacific that have been bombarding whales and dolphins with noise. Since 2003, activists have been winning in courts efforts to quiet the intense, high-volume sounds that can travel hundreds of miles in water. Last weekend, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. Navy reached a federal court agreement, with the navy silencing its sonar in areas around Southern California and Hawaii during certain periods of the year when marine mammal populations are most vulnerable. The agreement runs until the end of 2018, and at that point the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service should issue new environmental impact statements and authorizations regarding military exercises. Activists claim mass strandings of large marince animals sometimes coincide with nearby naval deployments. The noise is so loud, whales will do anything to avoid it, leaving the water, the theory goes. The Navy told the judge during proceedings that the proposed closures would hamper its “ability to adapt training” and “evolve as the threat emerges.” U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway described the national-security warnings as “pure hyperbole.” The NRDC says it will challenge sonar use in the Navy's other training areas, off the Pacific Northwest, in the Gulf of Alaska, and off northern Florida.

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John Anderson in DIYmedia.net reports that the National Association of Broadcasters are currently lobbying the Federal Communications Commission hard to allow AM radio stations to acquire FM translators. The FCC is considering ways to revitalize the AM band, and, apparently, the commericial radio industry thinks broadcasting on FM frequencies is the best method to fix AM radio. So far, the FCC has been resistant to allowing AM stations to rebroadcast their same signals on FM translator stations, keeping those frequencies for stations creating original content. "In the last month, a motley crew of advocates for more FM translators have been making the rounds at FCC HQ. These include trade groups, individual broadcasters and other interested parties," Anderson writes, saying that existing translators have been priced out of reach for small broadcasters, who want a new translator filing window exclusively for AM broadcasters. But Anderson also points out that the industry is not offering any prohibitions on AM stations selling any valuable translator permits that would result from a new filing window. Read the full story at DIYmedia.net. (FULL DISCLOSURE: John Anderson is on Wave Farm's board.)

Eriq Gardner in The Hollywood Reporter writes that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Sept. 14 ruled that copyright owners must "consider" fair use before sending internet takedown letters. The case revolved around a YouTube video of a toddler dancing to a 29-second clip from Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" song. Wikipedia says fair use is, "a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders." Circuit judge Richard Tallman wrote in this decision, "Even if, as Universal urges, fair use is classified as an 'affirmative defense,' we hold — for the purposes of the DMCA — fair use is uniquely situated in copyright law so as to be treated differently than traditional affirmative defenses. We conclude that because 17 U.S.C. § 107 created a type of non-infringing use, fair use is 'authorized by the law' and a copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification under § 512(c) ... " But what does "consider" mean, and can the bots that currently send take-down notices on copyright issues "consider" fair use? "To be clear, if a copyright holder ignores or neglects our unequivocal holding that it must consider fair use before sending a takedown notification, it is liable for damages under § 512(f)," writes Tallman. "If, however, a copyright holder forms a subjective good faith belief the allegedly infringing material does not constitute fair use, we are in no position to dispute the copyright holder’s belief even if we would have reached the opposite conclusion," writes Tallman, who says juries will decide those questions. And a jury will decide the baby-dancing-to-Prince issue in a new trial.

Jason Mick at DailyTech.com reports that the makers of the "Piracy: It's a Crime" commercials used Dutch musician Melchior Rietveldt's song on that project, and then again, without permission, on many others, putting it in over 71 DVDs and pre-movie ads all over the world. Rietveldt discovered the piracy watching a "Harry Potter" DVD with a pre-ad that included his song. So he called Buma/Stemra, the agency he had worked with in 2006 on a project with that song. They promised to send him a list of all the instances the song had been used, and an advance of about $17,000, but never sent any accounting of use. Then he recorded Buma/Stemra board member Jochem Gerrits telling him if he wanted to get paid, he should sign with Mr. Gerrits' label, High Fashion Music, where Gerrits would take 33 percent of Rietveldt's royalties. When that was revealed, Buma/Stemra sent him another $35,000, and last week a court awarded another $68,000, plus legal fees, and a fine of $22,000 against the company to go to promote artist awareness of collecting royalties.

Kunstradio added a memoriam webpage for co-founder Robert Adrian (1935 - 2015) on Sept. 10.

"My approach to the electronic networks is that of a visual artist."

Robert Adrian was born in Toronto, Canada, on 22 February 1935 and lived in Vienna since 1972. The visual artist and pioneer of telecommunication art passed away on Monday, September 7th, 2015.

It is not only the international telecommunications projects he has conceived, for instance "The World in 24 Hours" (1982) and "WIENCOUVER IV" (1983), or the ostensibly easy accessibility, at least on the simplest level, of his pictures/sculptures of “poor materials” that has made Robert Adrian an important model for many artists, particularly of the younger generations. It is above all his theoretically founded way of working, of engaging in constructive collaboration and discussions.

ROBERT ADRIAN and KUNSTRADIO

ORF KUNSTRADIO, which was established in 1987, took its name from the KUNSTFUNK project organised by the artists group BLIX (Robert Adrian, Helmut Mark, Zelko Wiener). This network project had its headquarters in the Vienna Secession and not only resulted from the collaboration with international artists, but was also created together with radio amateurs who brought their satellite Oskar into the network.

Not least through the close collaboration with artists who participated in or were influenced by early telecommunications projects, KUNSTRADIO was able to contribute on an international level to the new definition of radio art in the 90ies and it has also come up with a number of innovative projects.

2015 - 20 years of KUNSTRADIO ONLINE

The KUNSTRADIO homepage went online in April 1995. This was initially made possible by x-space, a Graz group of artists (Gerfried Stocker, Horst Hörtner, Martin Schitter), with a self-built server that soon was replaced by the provider thing.at, which was operated by artists (Helmut Mark, among others) and became the home of KUNSTRADIO ONLINE until 2004. In 1995 Robert Adrian created the basic structure and design of KUNSTRADIO ONLINE, which is still being used today. Until 2000 he managed the artist-staffed team of this website with strong personal commitment. It didn't take long before KUNSTRADIO ONLINE became one of the most important and varied radio art homepages in the world.

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Michele Hilmes, Professor Emerita at University of Wisconsin-Madison, reports at the Antenna blog that the Radio Preservation Task Force, a unit of the Library of Congress’s National Recording Preservation Board, holds its first national conference February 25-27, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Professor Paddy Scannell of the University of Michigan, and Sam Brylawski, former Head of the Library of Congress’s Recorded Sound Division, are among the keynote speakers. The National Recording Preservation Board began in 2014 coordinating, "a nation-wide effort to identify major collections of radio recordings and other materials that will help to raise cultural awareness of America’s rich tradition of radio-based soundwork and make it accessible to future generations." The group now includes more than 130 media studies scholars and over 350 affiliate archives, collections, and radio producing organizations across the U.S. and Canada. NPR, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Association for Cultural Equity/Alan Lomax Archive, the Paley Center for Media, the Prometheus Radio Project, the Media Ecology Project, the Studs Terkel Archive, and the Third Coast International Audio Festival, are among the involved.

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The Federal Communications Commission, after cutting back its enforcement division earlier in the summer, last week instituted, “enhance[d] procedures for public safety and industry interference complaints." The new process is supposed to be a streamlined, quick-and-easy way for the commission to respond to problems, even with 13 fewer field offices around the country. Ashley Ludlow at the Communications Law Blog isn't so sure the plan will work. "Incoming complaints will be categorized as either 'high,' 'medium,' and 'low' priorities – but the notice doesn’t shed much light on how any particular complaint will be assigned to one or another category." For instance, pirate radio operations that do not interfere with any other stations, might be in one category, and pirate radio that is interfering with a news station as a storm approaches a community might be in another. Or not, Ludlow writes, as the notice is unclear. Field office representatives will respond to high priority complaints within one calendar day of filing, medium priority complaints within two business days, and low priority complaints within five business days, though "respond" and "resolve" are two very different words, she notes. Ludlow writes that if a complaintent felt unsatisfied, they can then appeal first to the Regional Director (RD), and next to the Field Director (FD). But, again, what happens next is unclear. Ludlow says that the lack of details in these new regulations does not breed confidence in the new complain system at the FCC.

Click here to play or download an audio version of this report. (1:48)


Matthew Lasar at Radio Survivor writes that Azerbaijani radio host Khadija Ismayilova is in jail in Azerbaijan, for doing her job as a journalist. While convicted of, “running an illegal business, tax evasion, abuse of power and embezzlement," she was really sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail for reporting on corruption within the administration of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev. Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch issued a statement (above) calling the situation an “outrage.” “I might be in prison but the work will continue,” she vowed at her sentencing. Ismayilova had reported that the Azerbaijan government awarded rights to a large gold field to the President’s family. Her reports have been published in Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, and at Truthdig. Read the full story at Radio Survivor.

David Oxenford in the Broadcast Law Blog reports that the FCC is asking for comments on a rulemaking proposal that would allow LPFM stations to operate commercially and be owned by local small businesses. The proposal would also give LPFM stations primary status, protecting them against being displaced by a subsequent move of a full-power station or the initiation of service by a new full-power FM station. And the proposal would let nonprofit groups operate more than one LPFM station. A different recent proposal would allow LPFM stations to increase power to 250 watts. Comments on this proposal are due on August 30 at fcc.gov.

Click here to download or play this show. (28:00)

Viv Corringham describes her "Shadow Walks" and Donald Trump reviews "Citizen Kane" on "This Week in Radio News." The show tracks headlines and stories about radio waves, including all parts of the spectrum. This week, stories about weaponized drones in North Dakota, podcasting's popularity, and court rulings about cell phone surveillance.

Click here to download or play an audio version of this story. (2:05)

John Anderson in DIY Media reports that Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler just about admitted recently that the agency can do nothing about the proliferation of pirate radio stations in the New York City metropolitan area. While the FCC is cutting back employment at its enforcement division, it is adding one position in New York City, where as many as 100 pirate stations may be on the air. In late June, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly convened a “working group” including the National Association of Broadcasters, New York State Broadcasters Association, New Jersey Broadcasters Association, National Public Radio, and others to stop New York City radio pirates. On July 27, Wheeler sent letters to New York and New Jersey’s members of Congress formally replying to a previous letter from the Congresspeople about the problem. According to the letter, the FCC, “has issued more than 100 pirate radio enforcement actions” this year — a claim that Anderson says it not reflected in the FCC's public data. “Given the facts it is clear that the pirate radio problem cannot be solved by enforcement alone,” Wheeler writes. He announces the creation of an “inter-bureau task force” to “develop policy and enforcement optoions to address the issue,” with four options:
• Revision of the Communications Act to provide for “aiding and abetting” liability for landlords and other parties that provide material support to pirate operators;
• Identification of trade associations and law enforcement entities to educate landlords, advertisers and others about the unlawful nature of pirate operations and develop best practices;
• Release of a policy statement/enforcement advisory that could be shared with these groups and help channel state, local, and federal resources on pirates; and
• Additional FCC, state, and local enforcement options for reducing pirate activities.
Anderson predicts a sweep of the New York metropolitan area by the Enforcement Bureau’s new “tiger teams,” similar to sweeps in 1997-98 in the face of the microradio movement. Read the full story in DIY Media. (NOTE: Anderson is on Wave Farm's board.)

Click here to download or play and audio version of this report. (1:26)

[caption width="300" align="alignright"] Julie Shapiro photo from PRX.org.[/caption]Nicholas Quah reports for Nieman Lab that Julie Shapiro has been hired away as Executive Director of Third Coast Festival to be executive producer of Radiotopia. Radiotopia was in the news in May, winning a $1 million grant from the Knight Foundation. The audio group launched in February 2014, and includes the shows "99% Invisible" from Roman Mars and "Criminal" from Lauren Spohrer and Phoebe Judge. In the last 18 months, the similar networks Radiotopia, SoundWorks, Infinite Guest, Gimlet, the Loud Speakers Network, and Wolfpop have all launched, with Midroll creating the Howl app. Shapiro founded Third Coast Festival in 2000, as, "a big independent radio conference/summit/party in Chicago." Shapiro, besides starting the Third Coast conference, also co-produced Third Coast's "Filmless" festival, and edited the "Re:sound" audio show. After the mainstream success of the "Serial" podcast in 2014, that claimed 40 million downloads, radio companies have been hiring, and working on new shows and distribution. In August, the U.S. podcast conference "Podcast Movement" drew more than 1000 audio storytellers from around the globe to Fort Worth, Texas to discuss the medium. Wired reports 2013's 1.9 billion listens rose to to 2.6 billion in 2014, according to Nielsen data.

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Joe Mullin at Ars Technica reports that in 2013 U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled against the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records but did not shut it down until an appeals court could weigh in. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Klayman v. Obama, with one of the three judges, David Sentelle, saying it ought to be dismissed. "Judges Stephen Williams and Janice Rogers Brown declined to discuss the legality of the NSA’s program, and instead maintained that its opponents had not met the proper threshold for forcing a preliminary injunction, as the lower court had ordered a year and a half ago," Julian Hattem wrote in The Hill. The new USA Freedom Act passed in June, weakening and strengthening different parts of the Patriot Act, and allowing a 180-day window for continuing bulk warrantless surveillance. Mostly though, the judges sidestep the issue of Americans being spied on by their own government, and instead argue that the plaintiff in this particular case does not have standing to challenge the law. "Plaintiffs are Verizon Wireless subscribers and not Verizon Business Network Services subscribers," Brown wrote in her opinion. "Thus, the facts marshaled by plaintiffs do not fully establish that their own metadata was ever collected."

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Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica reports that House Bill 1328 just passed in North Dakota requiring that police and sheriff’s deputies get a warrant when deploying a drone for surveillance. But to get that civil liberty enacted into law, there was a trade-off. While the bill previously banned police use of any weapons by drone, now "non-lethal" weaponized drones would be allowed in the state. Tear gas from above, or a barrage of bean bags, pellets, or a Taser may be used with a radio-controlled drone now in North Dakota. "I submitted [it] with [a] prohibition of any weapons," Rep. Rick Becker said about his bill. "The law enforcement lobby offered an amendment and said that if the amendments were added, they would not oppose. The committee accepted amendments and I didn't fight them because I wanted the bill to pass at least to require warrants. The law says that law enforcement can't use drones weaponized with lethal weapons. But in 2017 when I get back, I will introduce a bill to also include non-lethal." Kelsey D. Atherton in Popular Science reports that actually, drone use in North Dakota is governed by an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research Compliance Committee. The group oversees all drone use by both the University of North Dakota, and the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Department, and the Sheriff's Department does so under the umbrella of the University of North Dakota’s drone exemption.

Beckers Markups to HB 1328