CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Friday, April 13, 2007

RIAA, Viacom, and the Big Guys Strike Again

From Live365 Forums:

Despite all the arguments made by the Internet radio industry, e.g. Live365’s CEO Mark Lam’s testimony last April at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on digital radio urging the Committee to help create a level competitive playing field for broadcast, cable, satellite and Internet radio (go here for video and written versions of his testimony: http://www.digmedia.org/content/release.cfm?id=25&content=news), the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has reportedly adopted the new per performance royalty rates put forth by SoundExchange.

It was reported that the new per performance royalty rates for the years from 2006 through 2010 would be $0.0008, $0.0011, $0.0014, $0.0018, and $0.0019, respectively, representing an increase over the existing rate ($0.000762) of 5%, 44%, 84%, 136%, and 149%, respectively, and a year-over-year increase of 5%, 38%, 27%, 29%, and 6%, respectively.

This would undoubtedly impose a grave challenge to the development of Internet radio. From the moment the news broke—and even in the months leading up to the CRB's decision, Live365 has been proactively working on resolving any possible negative effects of the potential royalty rates change, on behalf of our broadcasters and listeners and in cooperation with other DiMA (the Digital Media Association) members and the Internet radio industry at large.

In the days and months to come, Live365 expects to take a series of measures to combat the challenges imposed by the new royalty rates. We will keep you posted of the progress. Before the CRB and Live365 make any formal announcements, however, we ask you to please stay calm and refrain from passing any false speculations and premature judgments.

As far as the X5000 broadcasting package is concerned, we haven’t heard anything about a possible raise in the Small Webcaster royalty minimum premium of $2000 per calendar year, although many believe the CRB may not adopt a new rate for Small Webcasters (although there is no guarantee at this time). Again, please don’t panic before anything is confirmed.

In the meantime, you may want to contact your local Congressmen and Congresswomen. Make your voice heard by the lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

_________________


It seems clear that RIAA wants total control. This is why a monopoly is bad. Right now Sirius and XM are trying to merge. No doubt RIAA is involved in that as well. In the months to come we can expect this beast start really limiting what we have access too. Beyond the miracle of Streamcasting via Live365, You Tube, Mediaplex, and God Tube there is also Podcasting - and with Apple Computer behind it, RIAA especially has a fight on it's hands to kill the Podcasting market. Think of it, Apple is at the Wheel, but advertisers have access to some of the casts that grow in popularity. This creates an all out Big Business civil war.


What RIAA PROBABLY wants:

Total manipulative control over all sound recordings, chart directions, and new trends in music, removing the possibility of a free thinking listener base which in turn ensures all music trends will be totally up to them. This means:

Control of ALL Radio - The genres it plays, and what which jocks play them.

Destruction of Streamcasting - Other media outlets along with RIAA such as Viacom have imposed serious time limits on Mediaplex, You Tube, and even God Tube - media cannot be longer than 10 minutes in length. However, all copywritten material must be removed and accounts that insist on uploading copywritten material must be deleted. Therefore, why the strict 10 minute program restriction? And how did such a law pass?

It's clear that the corrupt owners of major labels and broadcasting outlets are trying to create a minimized monopoly where only the "big names" are in control and the little guy can go to hell. Do they really expect us to continually buy their poorly manufactured and costantly regurgitated recycled crap? This is more serious than I think most realize.

Also involved, our government. Many Americans believe a George Orwell scenario is looming overhead. Clearly, the government could use this situation to put a serious damper on what exactly is heard through our internet. It will be interesting to see if they vote on the side of the little guy or the greedy, corrupt, and clearly evil Big Business trying to control all media outlets.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well this just about pees on my cheerios. I'm a small guy trying to get my small radio station heard - and once again these greedy bastards are trying to shit on me. They are just angry because guys like me expose the public to genres they would never hear if the RIAA were in control. You are right, this is what they want. Keep posting your stuff is out there.

Woolfey said...

Another Stomp On freedom by the jack booted thugs of the corpoliticals...