Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) wrote RIAA Chmn. Mitch Bainwol Thurs. demand...

hearing RIAA was willing to take part in CPTWG talks to seek a technical proposal on audio flag for digital radio, he said. But he was “extremely disappointed to learn” RIAA didn’t appear at the meeting “to make a technical proposal or to make any suggestions about how its policy concerns might be addressed through an appropriate mechanism” such as the CPTWG, he told Bainwol. “I would like to know why, in light of your testimony at our hearing, the RIAA declined to participate in the meeting,” Boucher told Bainwol. CPTWG provided a forum for talks on the video broadcast flag in which the movie, CE and IT industries reached consensus on a technical proposal they brought the FCC for implementation, Boucher said: “No similar discussions have occurred to date in connection with the recording industry’s audio flag proposal, perhaps in large measure because it has been many years since the RIAA has attended one of the CPTWG meetings.” He asked Bainwol to “work in good faith” with other industry stakeholders via the CPTWG “to develop a technical standard for an audio flag. It’s “premature” for members of Congress, “who lack industry’s technical expertise, to impose a technology mandate,” Boucher said. He said he hopes RIAA will attend the next CPTWG meeting, set for Oct. 4. RIAA said Bainwol stands by his testimony that his group is “fully willing to participate in discussions at CPTWG if CEA is willing to embrace the goal of content protection. Unfortunately, CEA just responded in a letter to Rep. Ferguson (R-N.J.) that they are not.” The reference was to a July 25 letter sent to Ferguson that RIAA provided to us in which CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro restates CEA’s position on the audio flag. The letter didn’t say CEA was opposed to content protection and appeared to restate CEA’s stance that recording devices are protected by the Audio Home Recording Act. In the letter, Shapiro said: “We encourage all stakeholders to take part in an open industry forum with a track record of success,” specifically CPTWG.