Save Net Radio Coalition, Help Save Internet Radio!

Excellent article! I'm going to take some time to digest it, because during my research the three main ways of keeping going were suggested to one degree or another.

Highlander Radio isn't dead yet, so let's not have any talk about it dieing.

Here Here.....

Actually the next few days we are going to be talking about winners of our February Contest and also what we have up for grabs on St. Patrick's Day. I can tell you there will be a substantial amount of prizes on that day!

Speaking of musicians is anyone able to email the Brobdingnagian Bards about this. They have a large following on the internet and the Ren faire circuit. I wasn't able to. My server listed the message as spam and wouldn't send it.

I haven't seen Marc pop his head up in awhile...

I think Marc is on our musician list and we plan on letting all of our musicians know about this issue sometime this month.

Ok, more good news. Key Democrat Rep. Edward Markey had harsh words for the ruling released by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board:

http://news.com.com/New+Net+radio+rules+dr..._3-6165336.html

And he is from my home state! Let's keep the pressure up. There seems to be a number of issues in Congress about digital media that could benefit from all of the listener involvement.

Guh, they're more worried about XM and Sirius merging and making a monopoly. A concern, of course...but satellite radio sucks anyway. ::cough::

I was talking with my husband over lunch about this whole thing, and we've now begun to wonder why it seems that internet radio seems to be getting hit with *punitive* costs rather than anything that would even remotely resemble fair costs for royalty payments. At least from here, particularly with the whole ridiculous mess being *retroactive* no less...it seems there's some sort of punishment involved. Why?

It appears that the "music" industry can't keep up with technology. With the advent of peer-to-peer networks that made it very difficult to track who copied what music and the current concern of "ripping" music streams, RIAA wants somebody to pay. They are looking at the internet as an evil, untapped resource. They seem to look at webcasting as something that is counter to their goals. But what they fail to realize is webcasting is actually revitalizing the music industry with a healthy dose of competition.

John Q. Public is no longer satisfied with traditional radio. He finds it bland and unappealing. Too much fluff (i.e. commercials) and not enough substance (i.e. music). Additionally the quality of music, dependant upon the listener, is not appealing to the masses. Then there is the issue of selection. How many times do you want to listen to the top 40? There is no diversity.

In comes the internet and webcasters. WHAM! You have selection, a relative quality and diversity in the music. If you don't like something, you don't have to listen to it, you simply go to another webcast. In essence, a free market in music. The internet has yet to be fully harnessed due to its property of being so nebulas. Commercial radio is the opposite.

Webcasters do not need hundreds of thousands of dollars to broadcast. It can be started by the guy down the street with a computer and an internet connection, throw in some good software and voila, a webcast. Left to its own devices, the webcast swims or sinks on its own merits.

In the grand scheme of things, webcasters are the orphaned childern of broadcasting. They are tolerated like buzzing flies. Larger corporatioins like Sirrius and XM with their technology, are a little different. Its easier to hit an elephant than a fly. These elephants can be dangerous too, especially if they get a running start. What better way to assure you get your pound of flesh than to go after the elephants, the flies will be taken care as part of the hunt on the elephants and the whole issue being taken care of in one fell swoop.

The myopic morons at RIAA do not want to update their business model to embrace anything new. They are still stuck on trying to figure out what has happened to the music industry overall. RIAA will tell you that they are fighting against copyright infringement and piracy. Instead of dealing with the root causes (bootlegs of entire albums, etc.) they attack the problem with a sledge hammer and can't quite understand why they can't nail down quicksilver. Their current response is to lump everyone and everything into one ball and plead ignorance of any possible solutions to the problem.

That this is and has been an issue is amazing. I can buy any piece of clothing with any logo on it, wear a few hundred times, and then either give it away or sell at a rumage sale and no one gives a fiddlers fart. I take one little crappy top 40 cd and buy it brand new or from some used Cd store (cuz I can't afford what the industry charges for its plastic and tin foil plates) and when I get tired of it and want to resell what I've already paid once for, I am suddenly branded a crook. The whole thing sounds like the suits would like to have some sort of fee charged every time a piece of music changes hands. Opps sorry, you took that half note from my song-you owe me a quarter. Just plain old greed. This is going to turn me into criminal yet.

Historically, this is the same spasm they had when blank cassettes came out. And when VCRs came out. You'd think after thirty years or so they'd get the idea...

Some excellent reading here, I enjoyed these comments and all so true. Steven you hit the nail on the head!

Some other points I would like to make:

The RIAA is going after music downloaders, usually children, by suing their parents, grandparents or children themselves. In most cases, these are not pirates or hackers, just everyday people. So again, using OUR legal system for their own purpose. Using it against us! They should be going after the services that provide these illegal downloads.

Just how many times do I need to purchase a song. We bought the same song (some of us) on a Record, then 8-track, then cassette, then CD and then we downloaded it from iTunes! We just keep purchasing the same material over and over again.

The RIAA says stream ripping is a major problem. This is completely wrong. Who has the time to install special software, wait for a song to come on and record that song and edit the tags and audio track. I know for myself I would rather spend the .99 for the track if I really wanted it from iTunes. I would like to see the proof that this is a problem. Also, what is the difference between this and recording a song from the FM dial onto a recordable DVD player?

And finally, a comment that I think needs to be explored in more detail. Out of all of the illegal downloaders, how much $$$ is the RIAA really losing? Chances are those people downloading the tracks illegally would have never purchased the music legally. So, instead they make all of the people playing by the rules and purchasing music pay for the very small percentage of people downloading illegally.

Its all about control. Kinda like if you try and control your children, eventually they grow up and blaze their own trails. You can't control them forever......

You know, just a thought but perhaps it is all of the corporations in America that are giving us a bad name around the Globe. You can not argue that we as Americans are some of the most generous individuals on the planet......can you imagine what other countries think of the RIAA....

Very good point Macfive. What do you think of the idea of us posting the urls and such on our my space? Good or Bad idea? Most of mine are bands and it may cause a big response.

Slainte

I've already posted some of the URLs from here in bullatins on MySpace. I have also made a point to add, that if this goes through, then podcasts and anywhere else where average joe can post media (even of his own creation), are next on the list. which includes MySpace and YouTube. They will be no more very soon if the RIAA gets away with this.

Thanks Aaediwen. Ok I will do that. What a mess huh? Ok got to copy some urls etc. Thanks for answering...see what happens I guess we can always remove them.

Have a nice night..Slainte

This is great reading. I trust that it will make a difference. Thanks to everyone for posting. I feel a lot more up to speed on what the real issues here are.

I am planing on following up (a civil way of harassing) call to my elected officials next week. I want each of them to make a public stand on this issue. Certainly, this is not a conservative vs. liberal issue. It affects all of us who appreciate the opportunity to choose where we get our media information and entertainment from. Keep hounding your elected officials!

Have a great day!

Good for you haynes. Well I am off to post all this somewhere on my space. May not fit...may take some time. I will definetly post it on Clann An Drummas site.

Slainte