Take this one seriously, kids! Here's more hot poop on the <A HREF="http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat051606.html">Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA)</A>, courtesy of IPac. Don't let this stand&mdash;the only way Congress will oppose this is if it hears that its constituents don't want it, otherwise they'll suspect we won't even notice. Make some noise!

The (insert adjective here) recording and entertainment lobbies have sneakily maneuvered to have language inserted in <A HREF="http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat051606.html"&gt;
Section 115 Reform Act (SIRA)</A>, which is being considered by the House Judiciary Committee, that will destroy fair use as we know it. The language is vague but it appears to require licenses from copyright holders for "every digital copy made in the transmission of digital media&mdash;including cached copies on servers or on your hard drive, and even temporary copies in RAM," according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The measure of a champion is how he performs under pressure and on Saturday night at HE 2006, Dr. John (Mac Rebennack), despite a nasty running head cold, gave us some vintage Mac.

While the focus of HE2006 was clearly on consumer equipment, two recording engineers stopped me in the halls to show off a hot professional recording device from Sound Devices. Todd Garfinkle from M•A Recordings first alerted me to the two channel version of the portable recorder, which retails for around $2,400. About the size of a small book, it sports pro inputs and the ability to save to a flash card or host computer.