Web radio endangered

Looks like a lot of internet radio stations may have to shut down...

Save internet radio!
Only 23 days 0 hrs 39 mins 12 secs left before most US music webcasts are shut down!

What's this all about?: On July 15th, royalty payments for webcast music will increase by as much as 1200%. This outrageous and unfair ruling will result in many webcasters owing music royalty fees that are more than their yearly budget! Because of this, many popular internet radio services will shut down.

Non-commercial stations, like KPFA, must pay the commercial royalty rate once a certain amount of online listeners tune in. KPFA may have to limit the amount of online listners we have.

What You Can Do:

1. Contact your Representatives:
The Internet Radio Equality Act has been introduced in Congress to address the webcast royalty issue. Use the online form at saveinternetradio.org to find the phone numbers of your Congressional Representatives. Pressure from constituents seems to be working - The IREA now has over 100 Congressional co-sponsors.

2. Share:
This is not a fringe issue: At least 50 million Americans listen to Internet radio each month!
Join KPFA's mailing list to stay up to date on issues that affect media freedom. Do you use social network sites like Digg, Del.icio.us or Reddit? Click Here to add this page to those sites and many others!

3. Support:
Listener-sponsored KPFA can't continue our work without your help! If you haven't become a member, please do so today!

KPFA: Save Internet Radio

Day of silence protest...

Day of silence for Net broadcasters
06/26/2007 - When 29 million music listeners turn to their favorite Internet radio stations today, many will be greeted with the sound of silence - but not the song by Simon and Garfunkel.

Internet broadcasters around the country, including some public and commercial radio stations that broadcast on the Net, are observing a "Day of Silence" - muting all music on their sites - to protest and publicize increases in the fees they pay record companies and artists for playing songs. The fees, set to go into effect July 15, are so high, they argue, many of them will have to shut down their sites.

The battle is the latest grab for dollars in a war over who should be paid when music is distributed through online sites. Record companies argue that this legislation is a way to ensure that they and the artists get paid by companies that profit from broadcasting their work.

Fees too steep

Internet broadcasters, both large and small, say they aren't against paying a fee for use of an artist's work, but that the new rates will cost more than they earn. Some argue that increases will hurt small Webcasters worse, but larger companies say they, too, are vulnerable. "This will be the death of Internet radio," said Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo music. "We lose money on every radio play under these new rules and there's no way Yahoo, AOL or anyone can afford that."

More http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6230689?nclick_check=1

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Investigating internet censorship...

Senators want probe on content blocking
Sat Oct 27, 2007 WASHINGTON - Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones.

Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content." They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed. "The phone and cable companies have previously stated that they would never use their market power to operate as content gatekeepers and have called efforts to put rules in place to protect consumers 'a solution in search of a problem,'" they said in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the committee's chairman. A committee spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.

An Associated Press report on Oct. 19 detailed how Comcast Corp. was interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers. The AP found instances in some areas of the country where traffic was blocked or delayed significantly. Comcast — the nation's No. 2 Internet provider — has acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber Internet data, but said the delays are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users. Verizon Wireless in late September denied a request by Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program. The company reversed course just a day later, calling it a mistake and an "isolated incident." AT&T reportedly changed a service agreement that previously included language permitting the company to cancel accounts of Internet users who disparage the company.

Several lawmakers, including Dorgan, earlier this year introduced so-called legislation promoting "Net neutrality," which is the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers. Equal treatment of traffic is long-standing practice on the Internet. The legislation is a response to suggestions by phone companies that they would like charge Web sites extra for preferential treatment of their traffic. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain-based Vodafone Group PLC.

Source

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Comcast blinks...

Comcast Adjusts Way It Manages Internet Traffic
March 28, 2008 — Comcast, the country’s largest residential Internet provider, said on Thursday that it would take a more equitable approach toward managing the ever-expanding flow of Web traffic on its network.

The cable company, based in Philadelphia, has been under relentless pressure from the Federal Communications Commission and public interest groups after media reports last year that it was blocking some Internet traffic of customers who used online software based on the popular peer-to-peer BitTorrent protocol.

Comcast said it would change its fundamental approach to playing Internet traffic cop. Instead of interfering with specific online applications, it will manage traffic by slowing the Internet speeds of its most bandwidth-hogging users when traffic is busiest.

“In the event of congestion, the half percent of people who are overutilizing an excessive amount of capacity will be slowed down subtly until capacity is restored,” the chief technology officer for Comcast, Tony G. Werner, said. “For the other 99.5 percent, their performance will be maintained exactly as they expect it.” Mr. Werner said he hoped to have the new system in place by the end of the year.

More Comcast Adjusts Way It Manages Internet Traffic - New York Times

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Congress saves the day...

Congress passes bill to help save Net radio
2 Oct.`08 WASHINGTON — Congress has cleared the way for a potential agreement intended to save the emerging Internet radio market from a crippling hike in copyright royalty rates.

The measure, which was sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and now heads to the president, would green-light an anticipated deal between webcasters and SoundExchange, a nonprofit that collects royalties for recording copyright owners from Internet radio stations and other digital radio services. The two sides have been negotiating new royalty rates following a March 2007 ruling by the federal Copyright Royalty Board that dramatically increased the rates that Internet radio stations must pay artists and record labels. Internet radio stations say the new rates — which most but not all are paying — could effectively put them out of business.

Unless something is done, copyright royalties could eventually eat up as much as 70% of Internet radio industry revenue, by some estimates. After months of talks, SoundExchange has announced an agreement in principle with National Public Radio and has recently moved closer to a deal with big webcasters, including those represented by the Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group made up of companies that operate online audio and video services. Still, the negotiations with DiMA and other webcasters are ongoing and the two sides were running out of time.

Because Internet radio companies operate under a government license, any final agreement needs congressional authorization. And with Congress preparing to adjourn at least until after the elections — and possibly until next year — lawmakers probably will not be around to provide approval when an accord is reached. So Inslee's legislation enables the two sides to continue talking through Feb. 15 and makes any deal struck while lawmakers are in recess legally binding. The bill provides congressional approval for any agreements that SoundExchange reaches with DiMA and other types of webcasters, such as college or religious webcasters.

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