The RIAA Strikes Again: Internet Radio in Danger (564 hits)
Category: Computers & InternetRating: 1.58 on 33 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by John Galt <UberJohnGalt.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2007-04-18 14:00:28 EDT
It is time to stop the RIAA. The question is, how?
Today I read some very disturbing news. I'm not posting the whole thing, so I'll paraphrase it here. If you'd like to read up on go here: http://www.savenetradio.org/. This latest in the RIAA's multiple attempts to kill its own industry is aimed not at music downloads, but at Internet Radio instead. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), at the urging of Record Companies (read the RIAA), has raised the licensing fees for Internet Radio broadcasts to ridiculously high levels. They also decided to make this retroactive, all the way back to January 1, 2006. One example of the drastic change is a company called SomaFM, which owns 11 web music channels. Its 2006 fees (which have already been paid at the previous rate) will now multiply 27 times to more than $600,000 and estimates for this year's rates are over $1 million. (Source: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/21/copyright_board_to_reconsider_higher_royalties_for_net_music?mode=PF) I'm not sure how they can pull off a retroactive rate change legally, but it seems as though without Congressional intervention or a sudden change of heart on the part of the RIAA and the CRB, Internet Radio is all but dead. No more Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/) and no more NPR online.
As a result, Internet Radio stations and those that support them are running an online petition to ask for Congressional interaction in the matter and asking people to write to their Representatives individually asking for help. Now, on the one hand this may be the only feasible option that stops the current Internet Radio broadcasters from going out of business. However, in the long run it is only a Band-Aid, and one that in my opinion causes more harm than good. My Libertarian values (please hold your oxymoron and/or double entendre jokes for the end) simply will not allow me to support government involvement in this issue (except for the retroactive rate thing, which is just disturbing). The decision should be between us, the Internet Radio broadcasters and the RIAA.
Once the rates go into effect on May 15, assuming that they do, broadcasters will have a difficult decision to make. Do they go out of business immediately, or do they find a way to make a profit anyway? Most likely that would mean either higher charges for their advertisers, if they'll pay them, or charging a fee for usage that covers the extra expenses. That then puts the decision down to us, the consumers. Are we going to just stand back and take this too? If Internet Radio companies start charging exorbitant fees to make up the costs, are we going to just pay them and let the RIAA continue to take our hard earned money for what basically amounts to no value add whatsoever? Or if we don't, and the Internet Radio companies go under, are we going to keep paying $20 per CD just because they said so? At what point do we actually stop letting them win?
Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but as much as I love Pandora, I can't afford paying for it. I can't afford CDs either, so that makes the decisions pretty easy for me. I also don't feel that the value of marketing and distributing music (which is all that the RIAA does) is as high as the RIAA would like to think it is. The value to me is in the music itself, and it's systems like Pandora that make it possible for us to knock the RIAA out of its current position. The simple fact of the matter is that the internet as it is now, not even taking future developments and breakthroughs into consideration, could and will eventually render the old model of record production and distribution completely obsolete. However, rather than try to adjust to the changes and continue to be profitable, the RIAA is dead set on running itself into the ground and extorting as much money as it possibly can from its customers in the process. What they don't seem to realize is that it's us who control the rate of that destruction, not them. We have to show them that bad business decisions lead to harmful financial repercussions (i.e. boycott them until they go under or come to their senses). Simply stop giving them money, and we win. We can stop them ourselves, the right way, and we can have musical value determined between the right parties again once and for all: the artist and the listener.
Follow-up Note: Since I have absolutely no faith anymore in the brains or willpower of others, fuck values and ideals for right now. I want my Internet Radio and I want it free. So go sign the damn petition. Just don't tell anyone where you heard about it.
http://www.savenetradio.org/
User Reviews
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2007-04-27 22:11:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I am against paying for anything on the internet.
By the way, the CRB and NPR are government funded.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2007-04-19 10:11:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
the no fun police strike again
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-19 09:44:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
stfu beano find another site to infect with your neverending ignorance.
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2007-04-19 03:31:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I have 30K stolen records.
So... call the cops.
Submitted by ramirez60 (user info) at 2007-04-19 03:08:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"I swear by my life and my love of it I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
It's not about what we do with our money, it's about the masses. Which one of us is going to rally the masses to spend their money wisely? I don't think I have it in me, but I'd back anyone who did.
Submitted by professorfuckface (user info) at 2007-04-19 02:58:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
who the fuck listens to internet radio
Submitted by bart (user info) at 2007-04-19 02:55:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
My feeling is that it's time to start the book over on the world of copyrighted music. You'll hear more from me on this topic in The Future...
Submitted by particle_man58 (user info) at 2007-04-19 02:35:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I really don't like the RIAA. The thing is, they have money, and lots of it. They also have some very good cock sucking lawyers. They've pretty much made the American Justice System their bitch.
The only way to stop these guys would be if a major record label went agianst them, or major music channel, like MTV or VH1. There would have to be a massive boycott, and protests. Bigger than the civil rights marches on Washington, or The Montgomery Bus Boycott.
But even then it probably wouldn't do anything. Anyone remember the anti war protests in February of 03. There were protests in over 800 cities around the world, somewhere between 6 and 10 million people. Just the protest in Rome involved around 3 million people, and is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the largest anti-war rally in history. And ya know what, we still invaded Iraq and four years later, we're still here.
As long as RIAA's current leadership is in charge, nothing short of a goverment intervention is gonna stop them. But that probably won't happen.
Submitted by Herpes (user info) at 2007-04-18 23:59:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Just do like everyone else and steal the shit.
You obviously have the internet... so what the fuck is the problem?
Submitted by greEn_uGly (user info) at 2007-04-18 21:53:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
power to the people
Submitted by vyktoriah (user info) at 2007-04-18 18:13:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
No Comment
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2007-04-18 17:44:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2007-04-18 17:20:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
stfu Perkman. If somebody is willing to share their music with me, the only way you could you choose to buy it rather than take it free is out of a blind self-righteousness.
Submitted by JohnGalt (user info) at 2007-04-18 16:11:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I feel that literacy rates (as shown by PerkMan) and the problem with companies fucking us over while we smile about it may somehow be linked. If we're teaching math in schools the same way we teach English it's no wonder people can't manage their money and avoid wasting it on overpriced merchandise.
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-18 16:03:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by PerkMan (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:53:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
How about you quit bitching about music and actually pay for it.
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music doesn't belong to anyone, cockface.
should I have to pay mother nature 10 cents every time I enjoy the birds chirping?
fuck off.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:58:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Have another. Why the fuck not.
Submitted by orph (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:55:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
perkman, go smoke a cock you imbecile
Submitted by PerkMan (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:53:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
How about you quit bitching about music and actually pay for it.
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:46:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I downloaded the free trial and had over 200 new songs in my library and didn't spend a fucking dime.
I think tonight I'll do a re-install and have another 200 or so by this time next week.
Thanks for the reminder.
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:45:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by JohnGalt (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:40:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:24:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
www.bearshare.com
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I cannot support anything associated with bears. Sorry. Also, their color scheme is hideous.
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listen to reason, Galt.
It's 100% legal P2P filesharing. Didn't you think, along with the rest of us, that a few years back they had that annoying P2P thing under wraps? Apparently not.
Submitted by JohnGalt (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:40:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:24:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
www.bearshare.com
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I cannot support anything associated with bears. Sorry. Also, their color scheme is hideous.
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:28:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Done.
Submitted by snag (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:24:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
www.bearshare.com
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:21:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
lojope got pirated, pass it on
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:12:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I agree.
Piss off Orgasmoron: +2 this: http://www.ubersite.com/m/100833
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:09:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
The RIAA needs to get out of court and into the online-direct distribution business to compete with the other download providers. They're big enough to make a dent in the market and drive prices down while recouping some lost profit from record store sales. But they won't do it, because their constituancy is record store owners who would be out of business in two weeks once every CD ever was available on RIAA.com for $9.
Also, think of how much plastic wouldn't have to be made into landfill material if there were no more CDs.
Submitted by Zebra (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:09:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
A few actual letters from a few actual constituents can actually have an impact on a member of Congress.
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:42:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
fuck it, i went ahead and did it. i had some time.
Submitted by DirtyHarry (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:28:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
While I agree with what you are saying I think the below reply best describes my feelings on the matter. Thusly, you probably won't see any action on my part. Thanks for the info, though.
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Submitted by Lambchop (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:14:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yo ho! yo ho! a pirate's life for me!
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and me!
Submitted by MidnightToSix (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:28:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for the sentiment. Please realize that Internet petitions are pretty much retarded. They accomplish nothing. They are merely a way for people to feel they can accomplish something with no effort. Look them up on Snopes for a more thorough evaluation.
Submitted by Lambchop (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:14:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yo ho! yo ho! a pirate's life for me!
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:09:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JohnGalt (user info) at 2007-04-18 14:03:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
So I just realized the CRB is a gov't operation. Which makes part of this kind of dumb. I still don't see why we need Congress to intervene. Just stop paying for music (not like any of you probably still do) and eventually we'll win. If you think it'll help, start blocking off the entrances to CD stores...with fire.