Without your immediate involvement there are dire circumstances for Internet streamers on the horizon for all but the fat corporate cats and big 5 record labels. I'm not sure if any of you have heard about recent proposals on webcasting with the Copyright Office and RIAA recently, but last week they announced the proposed fee structure. Not to mention the proposed violations on listener privacy (as they want to track who you are, where you are, and what you listen to) but the fee structures are ridiculous and retroactive from 1998.
Basically, the yearly fee proposed based on one person listening per year then is equivalent to $20,277 per year - so if one stream has 100 listeners on 24 hours a day then the fees that are being proposed are $2,027,000 US per year. It makes no difference if you have other streams at differnet bitrates, or if you run your station making no money and just for the love of the music.
Also, with the current proposals, the way the regulations are worded would mean that you can't play music without a upc code as you would not be in compliance. This means that independently produced and manufactered underground dance music would be restricted from being broadcast on the internet.
These proposals only help RIAA (the major 5 record labels) line their pockets with money while monopolizing the internet and stopping the growth of the underground scene. Internet radio would cease to exist and it would belong to the major labels. This is something we cannot let happen. We have until March 11 to send in a comment to US legislators.
Here's more information:
http://www.radiohorizon.com/index.php3?fcn=displayarticle&id=2424
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/carp/webcasting_rates.html
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50551,00.html
http://wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50625,00.html
http://inetprogramming.com/default.html
Basically, the yearly fee proposed based on one person listening per year then is equivalent to $20,277 per year - so if one stream has 100 listeners on 24 hours a day then the fees that are being proposed are $2,027,000 US per year. It makes no difference if you have other streams at differnet bitrates, or if you run your station making no money and just for the love of the music.
Also, with the current proposals, the way the regulations are worded would mean that you can't play music without a upc code as you would not be in compliance. This means that independently produced and manufactered underground dance music would be restricted from being broadcast on the internet.
These proposals only help RIAA (the major 5 record labels) line their pockets with money while monopolizing the internet and stopping the growth of the underground scene. Internet radio would cease to exist and it would belong to the major labels. This is something we cannot let happen. We have until March 11 to send in a comment to US legislators.
Here's more information:
http://www.radiohorizon.com/index.php3?fcn=displayarticle&id=2424
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/carp/webcasting_rates.html
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50551,00.html
http://wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50625,00.html
http://inetprogramming.com/default.html
