Domain: rantradio.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to rantradio.com.
Comments · 36
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Re:Good, maybe REAL artists will now have a chance
Nobody plays industrial on the "radio", but I listen to a combination of these commercial-free internet stations all day every day at work, for free.
And yes, I've bought numerous CD's and Amazon MP3's after hearing tracks from these sites. The last one I bought was MenschDefekt by Massiv In Mensch - it's great for the treadmill
;)I also bought Troops by Dunkelwerk after hearing "Bastard". It was the only track from the album I'd heard, and I only heard it once, but I thought it was so awesome, I went straight out and ordered the album online.
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SoundExchange
SoundExchange is not yet law in Canada, and along with myself and RantRadio, Michael Crawford could probably avoid them for the time being.
In the long term, though you're probably right. -
Re:Speaking for myself
Just bought a pair of Porn on Beta CDs myself. Unlike the RIAA, Cimmerian's RantMedia has done quite a bit for the surrounding internet community, and his band kicks ass to boot.
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Don't forget Hacking
3. Block Hacking sites (possibly a subclass of dangerous information)
HackCanada, Nettwerked and RantRadio would be some of the first to go. Way too much politically incorrect information :(
(libertarian?) -
Re:Can we just call 'em MP3s?
There are plenty of shows (so-called "podcasts") out there that do not force people to subscribe, and that have clear direct links to MP3's and even sometimes OGG vorbis files.
A site like HackerMedia is a great place to start, they even catalogue video shows.
Most of the shows on RantRadio and RantTV also operate in the same manner, such as GAMERadio and LagRadio.
And lets not forget about TextFiles.com, Jason Scott's mirror of a little bit of everything, offering direct links to the files.
The term "Podcast" has to go... -
Re:The beginning of the end
Buy independent. The music's better (unless you're a Madonna or Michael Jackson fan) and the labels are usually run by decent, hard working people. Metropolis Records is one of my favorites, and handles Funker Vogt, Apoptygma Berzerk, VNV Nation, Diary of Dreams, Informatik, Melotron, etc. If you like http://www.rantradio.com/ then you'll love this stuff.
Regarding the RIAA, their actions are increasingly impossible to discern from the protection and shake-down routines of yesteryear. They are classic parasites who have a serious problem: their artists are increasingly tired and several generations of incompetent management at the labels (hiring of rich friends kids who have no qualifications other than the silver spoon dangling out their back orifice), they've driven revenues from the work of artists down. It has to be frustrating when you can't even suck off of other people's artistry well.
So now they have to find blood from the artists that got away. They know the music being distributed via P2P networks is increasingly not theirs, but with the force of their legal friends, they've got at least another generation or two to milk from these new hosts. In order to kill them off, it's going to take someone eliminating their legal fund and their means to coerce others to pay protection money. The satellite move is a clear indication they're desperate for more fuel for the litigation - this is a deep pocket litigant move that they're certain will settle for a quarter the demand.
If the satellite boys hold out and litigate, it's over just like SCO has found out with IBM. We need to put pressure on both satellite vendors - if they fold, we're gone. Perhaps one more big fight and these guys are history. -
Re:Theory or God??
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Cyberpunk gear
If you're interested in cyberpunk type of gear, the internet radio show NewsReal Reports on this sort of stuff nearly every day. A few days ago he reported on a set of augmented reality sunglasses that overlay black squares over billboards. I'm sure if it's a hoax or not though.
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Hacker Radio and Spoken Word
There's lots and lots (some would say too much) of "Hacker"-slanted talk radio shows downloadable and streamable from several popular sites.
2600 Magazine's Off The Hook has enjoyed regular broadcasts from WBAI in New York as well as being re-broadcast live on the web.
Binary Revolution Magazine's HackRadio has been fairly steady with lots of archived shows and a wide variety of speakers and topics [i am biased as i had a brief stint as a guest host].
Lots of these shows get re-broadcast on Rant Radio, a sort of free speech and alternative media cavalcade put into streaming form. I don't think you can download the shows from them but you can l33ch them at night with a varitety of free tools and listen to them in the morning.
If your Google Fu is good, you can find lots of mp3's of Jello Biafra, Richard Stallman, Larry Lessig, Noam Chompsky, and various other popular speakers talking about things techie or otherwise. -
Internet Radio Shows
RantRadio, has many interesting "radio" shows on their talk stream, the majority of them being intelligent. Also, most of the shows keep archives of their previous shows, so you can download them and listen to them whenever.
My favourite show is Nuts and Bolts, a show dedicated to computers and technology.
Also, there is Tales from the Afternow, a cyberpunkesque audio narrative. -
Re:What should I do?
goto http://www.rantradio.com, they have a few old show archives that you could mirror for them. It's all open stuff and if you need permissions just use the contact link to talk to the admin. I bet they will be happy for your help. The links for the show archives are in the right column near the bottom, or you could just wander around looking for something interesting.
Be sure to mention that your host will seed the file. -
Re:I always wondered...As many have pointed out, the CPCC (CCCP, anyone?) has paid out $28M blah blah while they have collected $78M blah blah. As long as they are compensating the wrong people, who cares what the numbers are?
Just like in the case of the proposed Tariff 22 (SOCAN, RantRadio) which dealt with web radio broadcasting, the copyright board is misunderstanding (or is intentionally misleading) what the implications of the new technology is. Their payout mechanism is still based on the only two measurable quantities available to them: radio play and record sales. But the new music consuming generation, grown up on MP3s and P2P networks, cares little for such backwards technologies such as radio and CDs, or at least they care less and less as time goes by as indicated by increasingly dwindling CD sales.
Thus, the payout method is based on paying the artists who aren't even necessarily the ones being copied. With this generation, artists are more likely to be have their music downloaded by cause of word-of-mouth advertising, or rating and genre systems built into P2P clients, or similar-sounding-artists suggestion wizards than by what they hear on the FM band or what CD the record store is marketing at the time.
The CCPC is extorting money from users of the new technology and using it within the framework of the old. This is, of course, a method by which to ensure its own survival as a bureaucratic entity and grow ever bigger by ensuring that its corporate backers are not hurt by this new technology. Remember, the CCPC is not a government entity but a non-profit corporation "run by copyright holders" - copyright holders who are so intent on getting paid that they work a full-time job to collect royalties.
To those Canadians who say they would rather have the tariffs and be allowed to "pirate" music, remember that the tariffs only cover you for private copying, which is covered under Canadian Fair Use law. The courts are still deciding what "Private Copying" actually means, and it is still uncertain whether many digital distribution systems are actually covered under "Private Copying" or not - or what you can and cannot do on a P2P network.
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Re:Summer Camps for Teenage Girls
That being said, take rantradio, for example. Rantradio had an average listener pool which consisted mainly of drunk 12-14 year old girls. that was in 1998. it's now 2004, and those drunk 12-14 year old girls are now drunk 18-20 year old girls, who are also hardcore rantradio fans to the core. A lot of them have coupled with rantradio and surrounding social world guys[ and gals]. I myself have dated someone in that crowd. If you are going to view women as objects, at least think it through thoroughly...the younger the indoctrination begins the better.
Actually I think the above example, and those like it, are also better things than the alternative[free markets out in the open], regardless of how sinister that sounded. Social constructions, like churches, and community groups, which are represented by both male and female members are great places to engage in friendships and courtships that have a much better chance of turning into long term relationships than solitary wanderers just meeting at random and pumping in drunken blurs. Everyone gains. Now should there be summer camps for CS? hardly. it's a big field, and really what's the point. But for GNU/Linux...now there's an idea. GNU and Linux are bigger than just software projects, they are communities, and more than that, ideals, that would serve and have served as cornerstones to build communities, works, and whole kingdoms on. I think, anyway. And if GNU/Linux is going to get, or continue to be the massive whirlwind of potency that it is, it would really benifit from whole family involvement from cradle to grave, both genders, etc. It shoudn't be summer camp, it should be everywhere! but...it must start somewhere.
once again, this post has been brought to you by me-having-to-stay-awake-all-night-so-i-can-handle- a-night-shit-tomorrow. THE PROCEEDING TEXT IS NOT MEANT TO BE READ OR UNDERSTOOD. BY READING THE ABOVE TEXT YOU AGREE TO NOT UNDERSTAND THE ABOVE TEXT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, PLEASE REMOVE THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST FROM YOUR SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM MEMORY AND PROCEED TO GET REALLY REALLY STONED IMMEDIATELY. -
Rants, tech, and politics...
Other than NPR, which is great, you can find some interesting talk at Rant Radio, which is occasionally even tech-oriented. And if you're a politics geek you can listen to anything C-SPAN covers online.
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freindship
and then you get the screwed up freaks who's main focus as far as freindship goes is 'a person who is not actively trying to kill or harm me in any way'. yes. that was my definition once upon a time. and i heard it echoed later on in a couple of places independant of my home town, once i found the internet. surely, the internet has changed the entire dynamics of freindship, as i thought that most of the people out there were totally against me, when in reality, they were just trying to save themselves face by picking on or just plain not supporting the freak. now with the internet the 'freaks' can 'team up' with eachother...so there HAS to be a new level of freindship screw-ed into the worldview of even the most unfreindly. right?
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thoughts.
ok, what i say isn't completely relevant, because i wasn't accepted into my local dorms until this past fall, when i had allready landed a killer living arrangement in my old boss's basement.
but when i was living on my own in an apartment, i saved power. i mean this. i used leftover candles for light(and usually lived in the dark, worked or slept during dark hours, used sunlight during the day.) i had one computer,(a 386), which i used only when i had at minnimum two things that simply HAD to be done(usually replying to email, which wouldn't take too long). i used cold water to "cook" my noodles in, and cooked coffee when i needed to with a drip-pot(wish i would have thought of what i use now, a drip-pot with a thermos beside it :D)...but anyway, since at the time i hadn't really tried using my fridge or stove, my power should have been at pretty much nothing. i had no heat whatsoever(this is in saskatchewan, canada, mind you...so things got kind of cold...)..didn't vaccuum,and that was it.
what did i find? i lost a lot of time. mabye not quite as much time as i would have spent on the internet reading slashdot, but i lost a lot of time. i was constantly tripping on things in the dark, my diet was horrible, so i was continually fainting from not eating enough, because i had no internet access/a shitty computer i have not really gone as far as i would have liked to by now in the computer science feild---if i spent half as much time wasted living in the dark reading Linux HOWTO's id be a power user by now, instead of still pretty much a noob. i used a record player for music...etc...i wasn't exactly living a luxorious life.
now? i have three computers, two running, one for backups and hard drive space, the other for my webserver/workstation...the third for experiments...and another computer coming in the mail. the load average of both computers are pretty much constantly > 1.0, and most of my hard drives are 98+% full.
because i use a walkman with rechargable batterries i don't have to flip records every 20 minutes, which is really, really nice. whats' nicer is internet radio...after all, why break from concentration of study to change a cd? why change from the concentration of study to unplug/plug something in? i am sitting here, to the front is my internet monitor/keyboard, to my right is my math study/pile...whenever my mind strays from math i just reach over and google it...if i get hungry, i walk upstairs, microwave something, and go back downstairs... there is so little distraction i have gone upwards of 14 hours of constant, productive work, without so much even noticing that the time was going by...no interruptions, because everything works, and is automated, allowing me to spend more time studying...and that's the goal here. i can figure a way to save money, and be green with electricity when i have a degree.
what is the point here? don't waste your time plugging/unplugging things, if you can afford it. go for a low power solution, but be aware of your needs, and what would be enough power to live comfortably on. not everyone needs a geek's level of electricity, but a geek does. -
My fight with SOCAN
They've been trying since 1996 to place a Tariff on Canadian Internet broadcasters, only to be shot down each year. It's little known that this 'tax' is worse than the most expensive proposal from the US counter part from the RIAA and also more intrusive into listeners personal listening habits.
I've been fighting against Tarriff 22 (the tarriff aimed directly at broadcasters) for a number of years now with a lot of support from other Canadian radio stations and listeners. Our fight has seemingly not fallen on deaf ears because each year it gets shot down again. This new blanket 'tax' on ISP's falls directly in line with similar unfair blanket taxes they have implemented in the past with blank media.
SOCAN doesn't seem to realize that by charging these huge tariffs on people and ISP's enjoying music on the Internet it doesn't benefit musicians but actually prevents the incentive for people to seek out music.
But then again, music is all about profit, right? -
i'm certianly glad the world
is so clearly black and white. I can now look onto the ways of my friends and peers who have assisted homeless shelters, batterred womens shelters, food-for-cheap units, and the like, and pity them, for they accomplish nothing. I can look on adbusters, the cult surrounding NO LOGO, my local universitie's student newspaper, union, health plan, dental plan, the eff, as completely despotic and fascist orginizations that bring great harm on everyone who is a member of them.
I can look on the entire Debian Linux distrobution and know that they have accomplished nothing, because nothing collectivist has ever done good, and i must actively fear them because they seek to destroy me, as a user.
That the community environment that thekult (direct action cyberpunk orginization) fosterred, and that to an extent still goes on at rantradio(a not-for-profit, non-commercial, independant internet radio station) must be fought against at all costs. That everything that isn't greed driven is immoral, and counterproductive.
[/sarcasm]
Sure, there are socialist international orginizations, countries, states, unions, orginizations, communes, cliques and whathaveyou that have gone bad. I've seen examples of all of the above. but this does not imply that everything that is done in the name of collective productivity, in the name of humanity as a whole, or a section of humanity...FOR the good of everyone instead of a select few, is in vain.
there are arguments to that effect, but they are not the ones you appear to represent.
but even Plato was keen to point out that good states inevidibly corrupt, and the dialectic will eventually 0wn you.
Hell even the idea of a _corporation_ itself is slightly solcialistic...
while some people seem to think that in order to be pro socialism in any or all ways, is to think that you MUST be the same sort of socialist that would support the regeimes that have failed miserably, and furthermore, that these same sort of regeimes follow from any other kind of socialism by default when both of these things are false. just as not all countries have turned out to be war-driven imperialist states attempting to conquor the world and enslave everyone...likewise there are orginizations that are collective in ideal that do not end up turning to disaster.
i tend to see the suspended state, either way, as pretty ideal, in case my examples havn't shown this... socialist infrastructure paves the way for True Capitalist Progress(it's amazing how worker productivity can be when your work-force is not working with broken limbs they cannot fix, and plauge they cannot cure) as one example,
another example a feudal/exploitive/"corpolitical" imaginary fascist prison-state where most people in a country are imprisoned for free hard labour...and then a state within this state building itself up zion style to house those who are interested in life, in the collective goodwill of themselves, their families, and their communities.
no one in the MIDDLE state would complain about the lack of civil liberty, even if freedoms such as the freedoms of religion and press were not extant.
but no doubt even this state within a state idea i have can be corrupted...
i think i've gone on to far and have wanderred from my original intent somewhat. but make no mistake, your black and white fallacy filled way of thinking about the whole order-of-mankind-orginization leaves a sour taste in my mouth, at least. -
no
there are plenty of people who's rational, critical, and creative thinking offer greatness , specifically on radio... and i really don't know anyone who still watches cnn or any of the other 'trusted' media sources. when you don't have 9/10 radio station's owned by one company, the idea that npr is way to far to the right doesn't sound that outrageous. here, there is some 3 entities that compete for our fm radio, plus we have a community radio station here. plus there's always rantradio. i bet most of the people who listen to wbai, cjtr,rantradio, and a host of other radio networks out there also have grown past the 'seeing cnn as worth watching' stage.
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no
there are plenty of people who's rational, critical, and creative thinking offer greatness , specifically on radio... and i really don't know anyone who still watches cnn or any of the other 'trusted' media sources. when you don't have 9/10 radio station's owned by one company, the idea that npr is way to far to the right doesn't sound that outrageous. here, there is some 3 entities that compete for our fm radio, plus we have a community radio station here. plus there's always rantradio. i bet most of the people who listen to wbai, cjtr,rantradio, and a host of other radio networks out there also have grown past the 'seeing cnn as worth watching' stage.
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Re:Oh shock and horrorCheck out this lovely Canadian trick Tariff 22 out My personal view on this is that I shouldnt have to pay anything to webcast my music as long as I have bought the original cd/tape/record and use those as my music source. The RIAA, record labels and artists should be happy how much exposure they get throught internet radio stations. Some of these station that a running out of someone basement have 100's and 1000's daily listeners! And from experience these listeners can get pretty loyal. I should dig out my old guestbook entries were people discovered my station and went out and bought records/cd of the music I play.
I also have talked to a couple of artists that I play on my stream and they were happy that someone was actually playing their music which you wont hear anywere on regural terrestrial stations or unless its played at a rave that has an old skool theme
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Re:Digital Gunfire
Rantradio plays similar stuff, but more shows in the evenings. I'm a big fan of both stations.
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attmept ii
i wrote 2 replies one at slashdot, one at kuro5hin. i had backups.
and somehow i simulttaneaously logged out in kuro5hin and closed the remaining 3 windows, with regular keystrokes. wtf.
i'll spare you most of the points and get to the meat. according to the article, this system is designed by the military, to harbour communictation between "assymetric" groups such as terrorist orginizations...and i think this everyone should pay attention to. these people want to replace irc, email, and the telephone forms of communication with this massive overbloat stuff : but that's not important. what is important about them doing this is that the military will have complete control over the form of communication, in this case. at least with email you can know at least to an extent who is seeing your mail...and ditto with irc....but a system partially funded by the military? iidono. creeps me out.
on the other hand... there is big differences between buying cobalt armour[a pragmatic object in a _game_] and a pair of virtual jeans that will NOT make you look any less ugly. -
Futuristic Wasteland Original Audio Drama
I recently produced a radio drama exclusively for the Internet for downloading and also airing on my station RantRadio. There were 9 x 1 hour episodes coming from the creative mind of Sean Kennedy.
Called 'Tales from the Afternow', it's pretty damn creative and if you take into account that NONE of it is pre-written and all spoken on the fly your mind will be blown away. With background sound effects etc.. etc.. it's a good listen. -
Re:Librarians.. and the Afternow. (lil offtopic)
ALL HAIL SEAN K and CIMMERIAN, for they shall lead us to the promise land. TFtAN is a great show and unfortunately SeanKTFM had to stop making them for a while b/c like most of us he's too broke to put in the time and effort required to make them as kick ass as they are. Maybe a few good slashdot posts linking them will inspire.
-=sNake -
20k a year in donations to cover WHAT expenses?
RANTRADIO.COM
I've been listening to rantradio for years and they sure as hell don't need "$20,000 a year" in donations to operate. Actually, they do it full time as a hobby and lose money anyway, but not tons of money. Cimmerian, the station manager, is perfectly capable of going out getting help and 'bandwidth donations' in a split second.
Hodges of SomaFM is full of shit. I liked SomaFM, I really did, but its blatantly obvious that the $$$ signs are all Hodges is seeing now. -
Rant Radio
Rant Radio has been free for a very long time and will continue to be. Industrial music (VNV Nation, Berzerker, etc), with permission from the record companies to be able to rebroadcast for free. I don't see why others can't seem to figure out that it's completely possible to survive without going to a crappy medium like Real and having to charge subscription rates.
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in canada
they now tariff all blank cds, or will be soon ; as well as hard drives, and all writable media.
this means we here, at least, cannot afford to burn cds...we are forced to buy them new.
if we do, of course by them new. i am lucky enough to be a musician myself, so if i crave music, i can pull out my guitar for awhile...
i feel sorry for those of you who dont have that priviledge...also i wonder how this makes the canadian version of this bill fare...if it will increases the chances that it will be upheld as well... -
Re:An internet broadcaster's opinion
I'm an internet broadcaster here in Canada. I've been following CARP closely and I've been filling out all the forms that I can to voice my disapproval. This sucks because you know that our spineless Canadian Lawmakers here will just buckle under and follow suit with Tariff-22 . If we can defeat T-22 in Canada then everyone can move their servers to Canada and avoid the tariff and screw the commie bastards!
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An internet broadcaster's opinion
I run Detroit Industrial Underground. My station has a 20 simultaneous listener capacity, and I've been broacasting for 3.5 years. To give you an idea of the small scale of most internet broacasts, DIU is currently ranked 222 out of around 2800 stations on the Shoutcast directory for total time spend listening (TTSL).
Some thoughts, based on what I've read here:
Terrestrial radio stations with webcasts are as unhappy with these rates as internet broadcasters are, and they'll be lobbying against this as well.
Some people have said that these rates won't apply to stations which only play non-RIAA material. While common sense would suggest that, it has not been proven yet, and common sense doesn't seem to apply to anything involving the RIAA and U.S. Congress.
Ephemeral recordings are "temporary" recordings made solely for broadcast purposes. In the case of internet radio, they're referring to MP3s. In practice, its an excuse to add another 8.8% fee on top of the per listener per song $0.0007.
Moving outside the U.S. won't save internet radio. U.S. based Broadcasters can be tracked through ISP's and billing relationships with hosting companies. Also, other countries have licensing bodies which are just as rapacious as the RIAA. In Canada, SOCAN is pushing Tariff 22, which imposes a $0.25 per unique listener per month fee. This adds up to more than the RIAA + BMI/ASCAP/SESAC fees, and forces listener tracking/subscriptions for auditing purposes. See the Stop Tariff 22 website for the details.
The battle isn't lost yet. On the Shoutcast list, we're working on our response to this. In the meantine, check out Save Internet Radio and the Radio and Internet Newsletter. Finally, write your reps in Congress, and include your snail mail addresss so they know you're a constituent. -
Re:What will happen...
Unfortunately, internet broadcasting in Canada is about to be squashed by fees as well, so the U.S.'s closest neighbor all but counted out. Although my submissions to slashdot have been rejected many times, if you care about possibly saving Canada's internet radio get on over to RantRadio. They are leading the fight against Tariff 22, the Canadian CARP.
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sounds farmilliar :)
actually...i know your trying to joke off of the fight club. however...if you take a look at any of these,..all of these(look under sean kennedy show in rantradio)...have a similar idea i believe...that is...starting as a multilevel terrorist orginization with cells capable of operating independantly.
originally at least
i just remember one day...after joining an international terrorist orginization...being ...in the prescence of a beautiful woman...who made soap...during a portion of my life where i travelled to meat this beautiful woman...(Thus loosing all sense of direction)...and being a coffee induced insomniac. remembering the fight club during all of this was scary, to say the least. -
eh
you mean the CIA HASNT been wiretapping me for the past 6 months (or at least scince i've joined what used to be an international/internet terrorist orginization
...or at least listening to pirate radio?...surely either the CIA or CSIS has been on notice of me for quite some time :)
oh yea and i agree... i'll bake cookies for anyone who can prove they killed bill gates and or took down everything microsoft offline for at least a week. (mmm...home baked cookies) -
AACB:::Re:Don't Listen to Corp Music
Go to MP3.com
Even MP3 is not pure, read this. I like Fabrik Nos (listening to RantRadio.com), and SteveE makes some good points.
PREMIUM ARTIST SERVICE. That's just bullshit!
Someday, Barnaby.
(Equity Lord? The Diamond Age?)
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*THWAP*
I notice your e-mail addy places you in Canada. Did you know the CRTC backed off regulating content on the Internet for the time being until things stabilize?
I don't think the geeks here are just being "libertarian" and defending "the right of corporations" - what about the right of individuals too? There's a much better chance that a large corporation run by someone like, oh, I dunno, Rupert Murdoch, could pull together the legal fees and lawyers necessary to get a license as opposed to a couple guys running a Shoutcast or Real stream of their favourite trance hits.
After all, streaming content is broadcasting, which is something that, being of public interest, governments regulate. So in principle, there should be nothing against them doing it.
Broadcasting over airwaves is regulated because it's possible and easy to disrupt broadcasts if multiple sources try to use the same frequency at once. It would rather suck if a Top 40 station suddenly decided to use the police or EMS bands in a large city. The only limiting factor over the 'net is bandwidth, and that's an issue for ISPs to deal with.
There's also something of a "freedom principle" on the 'net, where any Joe, Bob or Suzy is able to put up their own content adhering only to criminal laws of their home countries and the terms of serivce of their ISPs. This includes streaming content; I occasionally listen to a Shoutcast stream run by a few guys out of the Canadian West for the hell of it.
They could impose good restraints on large corporations going into this-- like space for public interest spots and so on.
And individuals? Would they also have to get a license to stream using MP3 or Real or whatever? Right now, the 'net is rather close to reaching the same state the "public" airwaves are in - controlled by a few large companies, with some token gestures toward "public broadcasting". This stream licensing business sounds like another step in that direction, meant to benefit only a few who can afford it.
I say: if it makes the establishment more accountable to the general populace, more power to Australians.
Great, now how will this make the "establishment" more accountable? For that matter, what is the establishment? Just the government? Or does that include any large entities that thrive on media control? Perhaps nothing is the "establishment" - just people in power constantly jockeying for position. Either way, I think it's better that the bandwidth remain open for people to set up their own streams - at least give the public one outlet they can handle on their own without being marginalized! -
Getaway from Y2K
I've got to mention how my brother Enki is spending the Y2K clickover: he and his friends have planned for a year to have a camp-out in the woods. They should currently be setting up their campsite at an undisclosed location in the Canadian wilderness, complete with propane heating, hot tub, shower and full kitchen facilities. They're even planning on taping a radio show, What The Hell, to netcast from the site. (Sorry, couldn't resist giving them a plug. Besides, their Y2K provisions list, which is certinly competitive with the best I've seen here, is linked under "events" or the Y2K banner there.)
I, meanwhile, am likely going to be partying with Dick Clark with my sweetie, possibly heading out for hometown celebrations which include a mass wedding (yeesh) and fireworks if the weather is OK. I was going to head out for provisions tomorrow morning, but only for party snackage and a box of "Millennium" crackers. It only recently occurred to me that, Y2K bug or no, I'm likely in the more hazardous situation: a basement in my bf's over-dense subdivision full of disgruntled gangsta-wannabe teenage boys. Likely sitting directly beneath a plate glass window of kickable height, defending a hoard of pizza, drinks and Playstation games.
Then again, I live in a rural enough area that we have our own well for water (no municipal service) and have a generator. Frankly, we're set. Now I just have to wait for Tuesday to see if the guys' Getaway from Y2K turns into something resembing the Blair Witch Project. I guess I can attempt to tune in to the station this Sunday to hear them muttering: "Fsck, it's cold." "Yeah, but we got an excellent view of the riot fires."