With a unified voice, we can help consumers and protect our industry and your business from government regulation.
Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO

In a rare public letter, Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro urged members to inform and educate consumers about issues that, the association claims, "could threaten the viability of the consumer electronics industry". The letter follows:

Dear CEA member:

This is a request for you to educate and mobilize consumers around four primary issues: hearing loss prevention, digital television (DTV), the V-chip and home recording rights.

CEA's leadership is asking the industry to support an unprecedented joint effort to educate consumers on these issues.

With a unified voice, we can help consumers and protect our industry and your business from government regulation. We will be doing the right thing if we inform consumers about:

-- Hearing Loss Prevention - The resurgence of headsets through MP3 and other portable devices and an aging boomer population have given a renewed focus on hearing loss prevention. CEA encourages members with relevant products to include a brochure on safe listening. You are invited to make copies of this brochure available to your customers. You can find a downloadable copy at http://www.CE.org/hearinglossprevention.

-- DTV Transition - A new law requires analog broadcasting to end by February 17, 2009. This hard cut-off is certain to generate digital sales, but also cause consumer confusion and concern. CEA and our industry have led the nation in DTV consumer education but we must go further to inform consumers about the shut off and what it means. CEA's Video Division created a standard label for analog sets and language for DTV sets to help the industry provide consistent messaging. The industry approved analog label states:

This TV has only an 'analog' broadcast tuner so will require a converter box after February 17, 2009 to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna, because of the nation's transition to digital broadcasting on that date, as required by Federal law. (It should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV systems, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.)

You also can find this language along with materials for your use and distribution to your customers at www.CE.org/hdtv. You are welcome to download and reproduce these materials as well as customize them to suit your needs. We also encourage you to provide a link to our DTV website and/or to www.dtv.gov both of which include a wealth of DTV information for consumers. Please contact Megan Pollock of our staff at mpollock@CE.org for more information.

-- V-chip - The law requires the V-chip parental control in every TV set. The recent focus on indecent broadcasting has brought CEA together with content, cable and broadcast industries in a voluntary agreement to promote V-chip usage and stave off proposals to impose new design mandates on CE products. CEA asks retailers and manufacturers to promote consumer awareness of the V-chip.

We have created a web site for consumers www.CE.org/vchip which provides general information on the V-chip along with links to additional resources. We also offer a free "tip sheet" which can be downloaded, customized with your logo and made available to your customers. We ask you to use this material and link to our page from your own website. Please contact Jennifer Boone of our staff at jboone@CE.org for more information.

-- Home Recording Rights - The motion picture and music industries continue to ask government to restrict innovation and the ability of consumers to choose how, when and where they want to view movies and listen to music. CEA runs and chairs the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), which focuses on preserving consumer recording rights and manufacturers' ability to make new and useful consumer recording products. As we prepare for more battles protecting our right to innovate, we need to expand outreach to consumers to ask their help in contacting lawmakers to preserve consumer rights.

CEA asks its members to include information about the HRRC in their products and link to the HRRC website from their own web pages. You can find recommended language for inclusion at http://www.hrrc.org/packageinserts.pdf. We ask you to join in this effort by including a link to www.hrrc.org from your site as well. For more information, please contact Veronica O'Connell of our staff at voconnell@CE.org.

I hope you will join us in this broad effort to inform and educate consumers. I recognize that we are requesting a variety of actions but I truly believe we can protect our industry and your business by working together to bring the power of our message to consumers, legislators and regulators.

As you review these materials, please provide us with any feedback or ideas on how we can enhance this campaign. And look for additional public education efforts from CEA in these areas throughout the year.

Thank you for your consideration and best of luck with your business!

letter ends