Posted on June 23, 2007 in laws, bills, and policy by bean
http://www.lawbean.com /2007/06/23/internet-radio-to-fall-silent-in-
protest-on June-26th
Thousands of U.S. webcasters plan to turn off the music and go silent
this Tuesday, June 26, to draw attention to an impending royalty rate
increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this
country's Internet radio industry.
In March, the Copyright Royalty Board announced that it would raise
royalties for Internet broadcasters, moving them from a per-song rate to
a per-listener rate. The increase would be made retroactive to the
beginning of 2006 and would double over the next five years. After the
announcement, a group of broadcasters spearheaded by National
Public Radio petitioned the CRB for a rehearing, but a panel of judges
denied the request less than a month later. Internet radio sites would be
charged per performance of a song. A "performance" is defined as the
streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an
average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 "performances" for
each song it plays.
Many webcasters are planning to shut off access to their streams
entirely, while other webcasters plan to replace their music streams
with long periods of silence (or static or ocean sounds or similar)
interspersed with occasional brief public service announcements on the
subject. Internet-only webcasters and broadcasters that simulcast
online will alert their listeners that "silence" is what Internet radio may
be reduced to after July 15th, the day on which 17 months' worth of
retroactive royalty payments - at new, exceedingly high rates - are
due to the SoundExchange collection organization, following a recent
Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision.
Jake Ward, a spokesman for Save Net Radio, said:
"The arbitrary and drastic rate increases set by the Copyright Royalty
Board on March 2nd threaten the very livelihood of thousands of
webcasters and their millions of listeners throughout the country. "The
campaign to save Internet radio - a genuine grassroots movement
comprised of hundreds of thousands of webcasters, artists and
independent labels, and Net radio listeners - has quickly brought this
issue to the national forefront and the halls of Congress, but there is still
more to be done before the approaching deadline of July 15th. On
Tuesday, thousands of webcasters will call on their millions of listeners
to join the fight to save Internet radio and contact their Congressional
representatives to ask for their support of the Internet Radio Equality
Act."
(Zacharias Liangas/Cumbre DX)