Say Goodbye to Internet Radio!

[~ Pakiha ~]

I don't know about most of you but I Listen to net radio at work when I went to launch my player today I saw this:

LAUNCHcast Is Off the Air - It's a Day of Silence


LAUNCHcast Radio and other webcasters are silent today, from
12 midnight EST to 11:59 pm EST. A recent COPYRIGHT ROYALTY decision will impose punishing fees that could shut down most online radio.
You can do something about it. Go to Savenetradio.org to find out more, and call your congressional representative before JULY 15th.

Today is only one day of silence -- but if you don't speak up, this could be the only sound we'll hear from online radio.

I followed the link and read that a bill was passed extending royalties to the net use and increasing the amount. these new rates are to go into effect as of July 15th 2007, AND will be retroactive to January 1st 2007. This will effectively bankrupt and terminate most net radio sites. I followed the link and am calling the representative as asked.

It never ceases to amaze me what idiots on capital hill waste there time passing bills on, Prayer is banned from schools, Budgets are nitpicked, Oil industries pillage our wallets, yet they had time to pass a bill that effectively maintains your right to free speech, so long as you can afford it.

[tkblazer]

this isn't exactly internet radio, but this is a site that lists local radio broadcasts that also stream online

Radio-Locator

[Pugz]

That is ridiculous, they increased the royalty's 4x. I think that everybody has a right to get their money but increases like that just make them come off as a group of greedy a$$holes. I'm going to tell my boss today I want my pay rate quadrupled and see what he says.

[slowSSer]

i've been following this for a while.

czech out Pandora.com for fine tunes and even more info on saving web radio. that and i've had my signature line like below for at least a month now.