Bill introduced to save internet radio

by Brad Linder Apr 27th 2007

Congressman Jay Inslee and eight cosponsors have introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act, designed to combat the recent rate hike implemented by the Copyright Royalty Board.

If no action is taken, royalty rates on internet music broadcasts will jump significantly on May 15th, potentially putting many small netcasters out of business.

Among other things, the new bill would:

Nullify the Royalty Board decision.
Change the arbitration process for internet radio rate setting.
Establish that the minimum annual royalty a netcaster has to pay can be no higher than $500.
Set a transitional royalty rate that is the same as the rate paid by satellite broadcasters.

The bill gives the save net radio crowd a chance to rally behind a specific action. Up until now, they'd been asking folks to write their local members of Congress to demand action. Now they're asking for people to call legislators and ask them to support the bill.

Tags: copyright royalty board, CopyrightRoyaltyBoard, internet radio, InternetRadio, savenetradio

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David said 5:50PM on 4-27-2007

Please,folks,support this bill!!! Net Radio needs our help to stay alive.So if you listen to Pandora or ANY Net radio,or even if you don't and at least believe in Internet Freedom,take a minute and make the call to your Congressperson to help ensure this bill passes.

BlackCoffeeNoSugar said 12:33AM on 4-28-2007

We should have a similar act in the UK too. Many radio stations have been forced to take down their live web broadcast here.

John said 11:10AM on 4-30-2007

Can someone explain this phrase to me: "Establish that the minimum annual royalty a netcaster has to pay can be no higher than $500."?! Shouldn't minimum be maximum or something?! Am I going crazy here?

John
http://www.gigatribe.com

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters