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bluegrassgary


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The Internet Radio Equality Act
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Today I sent the following letter to my Congresswoman Betty Sutton.

April 30,2007

To The Honorable Betty Sutton

Hello... I recently read an article about the introduction of legislation to reverse the current law regarding royalty fees levied on internet radio webcasters. Here is an excerpt:

"U.S. Reps. Don Manzullo (R-IL) and Jay Inslee (D-WA) today introduced bipartisan legislation to protect Internet music Web casters from unfair government regulations that threaten to put them out of business and end the access to music over the Internet for more than 70 million Americans.


The Internet Radio Equality Act would reverse a recent decision of the federal Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to at least triple the amount of royalties Internet radio broadcasters pay to copyright holders for playing a song."


I feel passage of The Internet Radio Equality Act is essential because so many of us listen to internet radio. I am disabled and internet radio has become a very important part of my life. If the current fees are enforced, many webcasters will be forced to shut down permanently. They just can't afford these high fees.

Please give this new legislation your immediate attention. Thank you.


Sincerely,





If you would like to send a message to your Congress person, here's link to do so. http://www.house.gov/writerep/ You'll have to know your full zip code (mine is 44221-2263). If you don't know yours go to the USPS website. http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
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-- Edited by bluegrassgary at 01:48, 2007-05-01

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bluegrassgary


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Well, it looks like the little guy has won for the time being....

BREAKING NEWS: Internet Radio Saved
Jul 13th, 2007 by takecountryback

for now.

Online Radio Is Saved; SoundExchange Will Not Enforce New Royalty Rates on Sunday.

By Eliot Van Buskirk ..July 12, 2007 | 7:35:30 PMCategories: Save Net Radio

At todays Congressional hearing about the new rates for online radio that would essentially destroy it (as readers of this blog already know), SoundExchange, which was scheduled to receive the new royalty payments on Monday morning (since the enforcement date falls on a Sunday), made a startling statement.

The SoundExchange executive promised in front of Congress that SoundExchange will not enforce the new royalty rates. Webcasters will stay online, as new rates are hammered out.

I just spoke with Pandora founder Tim Westergren, who expressed relief that Pandora wouldnt have to shut down on Sunday in response to the new rates. He said, It was getting pretty close. I always had underlying optimism that sanity was going to prevail, but I was beginning to wonder.

He said everyone who called their Congress person about this should feel that they had an effect on the process:

This is a direct result of lobbying pressure, so if anyone thinks their call didnt matter, it did. Thats why this is happening. The flyer DiMA distributed to Congress today probably helped a bit too, but overall, it appears Congress intervened due to pressure from web radio listeners.

Funnily enough, Westergren told me this mere hours after a representative of SoundExchange said
that the new rates are etched in stone. Twice. Evidently not.

Westergren had more to say, lending insight into a process that was largely opaque to non-participants. Apparently, the per-channel minimum fees mandated by the Copyright Royalty Board were never taken very seriously by those involved. Theyve now been taken off the table completely, saving Pandora, Live365, and other multicasters from their most imminent threat.

No one thought those per station fees were remotely rational. It only makes sense that theyre being taken off the table.

As for the Copyright Royalty Board? Theyre entirely cut out of the process, having set the rates and then refused a rehearing. Going forward without the royalties being collected, SoundExchange and webcasters will negotiate a new royalty rate with Congress looking over their shoulder and last but not least, the public looking over Congresss shoulder. Alternatively, Congress now has time to consider the Internet Radio Equality Act, which would set webcaster royalties at 7.5 percent of revenue and allow them to continue operating pretty much as they have been.

Either way, this is a big win for webcasters and their listeners.


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Eric OR


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bluegrassgary,
Outstanding news! w00t.gif

Thanks for posting it here!!  biggrin.gif

Eric OR

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