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Two Bills of Interest Advancing In Congress
pgn674 writes "While the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 failed to pass in the House of Representatives, two other bills of interest to this community are currently moving through the US lawmaking process. One is the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which Communications Workers of America claims will help us towards bringing high-speed Internet access to all Americans. It will have the FCC increase their granularity in reporting the Internet accessibility of an area in the US, and redefine broadband measurements. It has passed through the House and the Senate, and differences in the passed versions are currently being resolved. The other bill is the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. Pandora is excited for this one as it will give them time to negotiate with SoundExchange (i.e. the RIAA) for new, more affordable royalty rates. The bill is currently in the Senate, and is expected to pass with ease."
To inform yourself about what is wrong with the bailout, and what caused the crisis in the first place, read these two excellent articles:
Economist: Why Bankruptcy is Better than Wall Street Bailout
The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities ( written EIGHT YEARS before this crisis , predicting everything down to the dollar amount)
While am very much delighted with the fact that Congress has loosened the reigns a little, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 (WSA) does not seem to go the direction I expected.
For those who didn't RTFA regarding WSA or just don't understand, it, the important part is this:
"This subparagraph shall not apply to the extent that the receiving agent and a webcaster that is party to an agreement entered into pursuant to subparagraph (A) expressly authorize the submission of the agreement in a proceeding under this subsection"
In short: Webcasters may now attempt to negotiate pricing with the "recieving agent" (ie SoundExchange aka RIAA), but leaves Webcasters in the same boat if an agreement isn't reached. Companies will usually go for some money instead of none, but the RIAA plays by different rules. All this legislation will do is give the RIAA the ability to pick and choose which small webcasters get to survive.
Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
Figure someone needs to make a fuss on here about it;
http://wizards-keep.blogspot.com/2008/09/orphan-works-bill_30.html
people desperately wanting this orphan works bill to go down way differently than it seems to be headed atm.