Thursday, July 12, 2007

End of the Road for Internet Radio?

I don't usually do something like this, but I'm e-mailing everyone because this is personal and kind of a big deal. If you have some free time this afternoon and can catch up on the issue, the links on this page are great resources. I understand that "calling a senator" seems daunting, but it's really not. The link in the first paragraph walks you through step-by-step, and even gives you a little cue card to read from. Thanks! -Ryan


From WOXY's blog, The Futurist, this morning:

We got word here this morning that yesterday afternoon that the US Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. denied webcasters' emergency motion for a stay of the new royalty rates set to crush the Internet broadcasting industry. This means that now the rates will officially go into effect this Sunday, July 15th, and many webcasters are facing retroactive royalty bills of tens of thousands of dollars (millions for the big guys).

First things first – CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TODAY! Urge them to support the "Internet Radio Equality Act." If they've already co-sponsored, thank them and tell them to fight to bring it to the floor for an immediate vote. Even if you've already called, call again. If the line is busy, call back. This is our last good chance to make some noise about this before lots (and I mean LOTS) of Internet radio operations go silent.

Where will it go from here? What happens on July 16th? Hard to tell at this point. Webcasters really have three options: cough up the piles of cash required to keep broadcasting and the tens or hundreds of thousands that they owe in back royalties (not an option for most webcasters); not pay and keep broadcasting (which will put you legally in violation of US Copyright Law); or shut it down (which still doesn't relieve you of paying the thousands of dollars in retroactive royalties back to January 1, 2006). It's a difficult choice to be sure. While the fight to overturn the royalty rates will surely continue after July 15th, I think the majority of small webcasters will be unwilling to take the financial and legal risk of staying on-the-air and will simply go silent.

We'll post more updates here at The Futurist as we get em. Also some great resources for the latest news on the situation are KurtHanson.com, SaveNetRadio.org, and for a more in-depth legal analysis check out David Oxenford's excellent Broadcast Law Blog.

--

I just called my two senators and asked them to cosponsor this, and thanked my representative for already cosponsoring but to please bring it to the floor immediately... kind of exciting... do it!!