Q: Which US Senators are in the back pocket of the RIAA?
A: Which US Senators put forth the new “Platform Equality and Remedies for Right Holders in Music Act”?

This time the RIAA is using its political clout to attack Satellite Radio and brought some friends from the US Senate. Mitch Bainwol, President of the Recording Industry Association of America was once a chief of staff for Bill Frist, Republican Senator from Tennessee. Even though Frist is now out of office, Bainwol can still count on that other Republican Senator from Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, to support his pet political causes. Sadly, you can view the first ever GizmoCafe video blog report (by me) and watch me mumble my way through this story back when Bainwol first recruited Frist for the ancestor of this new proposal. They’ve advanced significantly since that time, as now it’s a bill, sitting there on Capitol Hill.

The RIAA’s current agenda is passing the new Platform Equality and Remedies for Right Holders in Music Act. It’s a senses-numbing bit of legislation that hopes to turn back the hands of time on technology. The bill ostensibly takes exception to the ability for some satellite receivers to digitally record its radio broadcasts. This feature is most famously inherent in Pioneer / Inno’s XM2Go. But really, we all know the bill is a transparent effort to milk more money out of Satellite Radio or stomp it entirely. Why should Howard Stern and Martha Stewart make all the Satellite Radio money?

The Senators explain they simply want to “level the playing field” among “radio-like services” which includes cable and Satellite TV as well as Internet radio. They argue that one method of digital radio’s ability to record constitutes an unfair advantage over competitors. The Senators believe technologies like XM2Go should be subject to higher royalty rates since recording takes music radio listening beyond the passive audience.