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.