Brett and I have been doing a weekly show on the Portland Radio Authority.

“…the problem is not that the poor riot, but that they don’t riot enough.”

From the PRA radio listserve:

“peoples. and you specifically. be sure to leave the party shuffle on itunes playing if you leave before the next dj arrives. dead air really sucks.
and
it appears someone puked all over the windowsill and didn’t clean it up.
this is a message to that person-
fuck you!”

Last week, Congressmen Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Don Manzullo (R-IL) introduced a new bill, the Internet Radio Equality Act, that would roll back the Copyright Royalty Board’s recent decision to put small webcasters out of business by raising royalty rates far beyond what they can afford.

The main beneficiary of this ruling, SoundExchange, is already on the attack:

“The idea that this bill would help small webcasters or artists is ludicrous since less than two percent of all royalty payments in 2006 came from small webcasters,” said John Simson, Executive Director of SoundExchange.

Wait, let me get this straight, John. Independent webcasters make up less than 2% of the royalty market? And you want to support legislation that will decrease this number even further? In a world where any web radio broadcaster can reach the entire world by spending less than $100 / mo. on bandwidth, the major broadcasters should be the ones struggling to hold onto their minor market share, not the other way around.

This just in: The Copyright Royalty Board has just denied a motion to rehear arguments for webcasting royalty rates. Their previous ruling, a significant rate hike that threatens to shut down thousands of small webcasters, will stand.

Michael Huppe, general counsel of SoundExchange, a royalty collection agency formed by the RIAA, said “With the resolution of these motions, it is now time to move forward with business. It’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure a vibrant and thriving marketplace for Internet Radio and we intend to work with webcasters towards achieving that goal.”

Sounds like a threat to me. But there are ways to threaten back. How many labels will support these unfair rates? I count only 4.

Vampire Weekend! What a great band! Here’s a song called Oxford Comma

The history of webcasting legislation is already rife with turnaround, bottom-of-the-ninth style rescue scenes. Now, after announcing a rate hike that threatened to put independent webcasters out of business for good, the federal Copyright Royalty Board announced that it will rehear arguments.

I think this must be due in no small part to the uproar of bloggers. It’s not too late - call your senators and rebuke this RIAA-sponsored royalty rate hike. To learn more, visit SaveTheStreams.org. This has provoked a lot of historical research and perspective on our part. We’ll be posting a more comprehensive condemnation soon. (And we’re keeping our shirts laundered of spittle resulting from all this shouting at the monitor.)

                    _|            _|                    _|
  _|_|_|  _|  _|_|        _|_|_|  _|  _|      _|_|    _|_|_|_|    _|_|_|
_|        _|_|      _|  _|        _|_|      _|_|_|_|    _|      _|_|
_|        _|        _|  _|        _|  _|    _|          _|          _|_|
  _|_|_|  _|        _|    _|_|_|  _|    _|    _|_|_|      _|_|  _|_|_|    _|