[commedia] Save internet radio (US)

[Michelle McGuire]

This information relates to issues in America but it's always to good to
keep an eye on this.

bw,
Michelle

--
Forwarded From: Camille Baker <slackers at slackerbonding.com>
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Save internet radio February 26, 2002

The US Copyright Office finally released their suggested webcast royalty
fees, and it looks like corporations (major labels and corporate AM/FM
radio) have purchased another arm of the American Government to do their
bidding. If this fee gets approved, 3WK.com and other independent webcasters
will cease to exist, and major labels will control your access to music on
the internet.

Not only are the fees disastrous for the fledgling webcasting industry
($9173 per month for small webradio broadcasters like 3WK.com- 3 times our
revenue), but they are twice the rate that AM/FM webcasters have to pay. And
to make matters worse, this is a retroactive fee back to 1998. With this
suggested fee 3WK would owe up to $200,000 - more than 10 times our revenue
for this period. One more kick in the ass, is that for every song we play we
would have to report 25 pieces of information including where each of you
listens from and when - a serious breach of your privacy.

3WK.com plays 100's of new and unsigned artists, and introduces well over a
million people each year to music they will never hear on their local FM
radio. Any artist played on 3WK gets unlimited free advertising each and
every time their song is played. At a MINIMUM our internet airplay generates
$100,000 each year in cd sales for artists, many of whom would not have had
a market for their music other than touring. If 3WK and other indies go out
of business, where will these artists get airplay? And where will you go to
discover new artists and new music?

Make your voice heard by contacting your Senate and House Representatives.
Tell all your friends to do the same and we'll flood their email servers and
post-offices to get this proposal stopped! (We all needed a good fight this
year, right?)

Click to email your representatives and contact the media:
http://www.3wk.com/copyrightletter.htm

More info: Radio And Internet Newsletter Continued updates and feedback from
the internet radio industry http://www.kurthanson.com/

Save Internet Radio http://saveinternetradio.org/
http://saveinternetradio.org/listeners.asp

Newsbytes Some Cheer, Others Fear Net-Radio Royalty Plan
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174774.html

MTV News Online Online Radio Facing Possible Extinction
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452564/20020222/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Anti-DMCA http://www.anti-dmca.org/
Save Our Streams http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~willr/cb/sos/

Wired.com Webcasters Learn Cost of Music
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0%2C1285%2C50551%2C00.html

Salon.com Royalties Proposed For Internet Music
http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2002/02/20/music_royalties/index.html?x

Los Angeles Times Proposal May Quell Free Online Music
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000013215feb21.story

Indystar.com Royalty ruling may stifle fledgling Internet radio industry
http://www.indystar.com/article.php?tom26.html