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Senate Committee Holds Webcasting Hearing
jonathanjo writes "Yesterday (5/15/02) the US Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled: "Copyright Royalties: Where is the Right Spot On The Dial For Webcasting." This was a review of the work of CARP, the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel, the group formed by the DMCA that has closed down webstreaming for many independent radio stations with new high fees and exhaustive reporting requirements. Representatives from RIAA, Digital Media Association, Arbitron, Real Networks, and Yahoo gave testimony, as well as people representing two independent Vermont webcasters, and the American Federation Of Television and Radio Artists. Senator Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) testimony was surprisingly sympathetic to small webcasters (especially by inviting two from his state to speak). Orrin Hatch gave the expected pro-DMCA boilerplate."
KCRW, an LA NPR station, has been playing PSAs about this. They have a great page with a sample letter to your Congresscritter. And be sure to check out SaveInternetRadio.org. This is something the average non-slashdot-reader can understand far more than they can or will bother to comprehend DMCA, SSSCA, or the Russian who wrote software that let people read books, so there is a slight chance that the forces of ignorance won't take this round.
This is a direct result of poltical pressure from small webcasters, and shows that the system does respond to such pressure.
Last Thursday, before the Roundtable at the Library of Congress on the CARP recordkeeping rules, there was a "Hill Walk" organized by Kevin Shively of Beethoven.com and other small webcasters, who went to the Capitol and meet with legislators and their staffers to explain their position. Earlier, on May 1, the same group organized the "day of silence" on Internet radio, to show the result if the situation wasn't changed. This hearing was one result from this politcal campaign.
More information about this grass-roots effort can be found at SaveInternetRadio.com, and some of the best coverage is in the Radio and Internet Newsletter.
http://www.rice.edu/cb/sos/ -- Information pertaining to the effect of the CARP recomendations upon non-commerical radio stations.
http://www.kurthanson.com/ -- RAIN is a trade publication for the Internet Radio industry. This is an excellent site to keep tabs on how the campaign is going to stop these fees and reporting requirements.
http://broadcastpromotions.net/carp/ -- This site allows you to send faxes through their web site and directly to the person in Washington that you should be bugging.
The CARP proposal, if passed, will take effect on or about May 21, 2002.
- what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
If a top-rated radio station in NY had an online listening audience the size of their on-air audience, they would pay $15 million in license fees, or over 25% of their advertising revenue. Similarly, for the entire radio industry, the cost would be $2.4 billion, or %13 of total revenue.
He plainly states that most existing radio stations could not afford to webcast under those conditions, much less any Internet-only stations, whose costs would be double that amount. He even covers the variety of music that is not available on commercial radio that would not be broadcast if web radio were to disappear. If this doesn't convince the Libarian of Congress that the CARP royalty rates are way out of line, then nothing will.
DMCA - Chilling free speech since 1998.
I always like to point out that you can actually help do something about this. Contact your Senator and Member of Congress. IT WORKS. The more they hear from people onm an issue the more seriously they take it. Go here: http://capwiz.com/nyt/dbq/officials/. Type in your zip code to see who to contact. It makes a difference. Try it.
This note really indicates that you can make a difference -- if only you take action. Bear in mind that some/most/all Slashdotters know more about the reality of internet radio than the LOC. This is probably also the case for most highly technical issues.
You will have to guess which of the 39 commenters I am, but I note with some satisfaction that the reply comments from the RIAA indicated that they read my initial comments, and they couldn't figure out how to respond to one of the issues raised.