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SABAM Wants Truckers To Pay For Listening To Radio

Posted by Soulskill on from the tell-us-of-your-plight dept.

guruevi writes "SABAM, the Belgian RIAA, wants truckers to start paying for the copyrights to listen to the radio in their cabin (Google translation of Dutch original). SABAM already has a system in place to extract fees from businesses for having radios in the work area for businesses with more than 9 employees, and they find that truckers' cabins are areas of work and thus infringe on their copyrights. The local politicians think this is going too far; they believe truckers need a radio for safety reasons and view a truck cabin as 'an intimate place.'"

13 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. I'd be fine with this, as long as... by NeuralAbyss · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd be fine with this, as long as the beancounters are forced to personally visit every single trucker in person, and attempt to extract their fees.

    I'd imagine they'd soon have a 'close encounter of the truckstop kind'... perfect sort of punishment for this level of arrogance. Next they'll be demanding fees for listening to the radio while driving to work. The publishing industry will stop at nothing to fraudulently demand fees for others' works.

    1. Re:I'd be fine with this, as long as... by jhoegl · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I find this interesting.
      It used to be that these companies kissed the ass of Radio stations. Who knows, they still might.
      They gave away the songs, tickets to concerts, everything to the radio stations to play the music during prime time to get their songs out there.
      Now, they are wanting the consumer, the very person that will like or dislike their artists work to pay to even listen to it for the first time?
      Complete 180 by the industry.
      Here is what I propose... play garage band songs, and songs by people who dont want to nickle and dime the consumer to death
      Fuck you big industry and suck my balls.

    2. Re:I'd be fine with this, as long as... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The industry is dying. They're going after any revenue stream they can dream up now.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:I'd be fine with this, as long as... by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Informative

      Truck stops often offer a free shower in their facility with a minimum fuel purchase. Given that fuel prices are high and trucks have rather large fuel tanks, spending $250 on a fill up is not at all uncommon. Thus if you flip things around, it becomes 'free diesel' with the purchase of a '$250 shower'. Just a way of making it sound cute, especially when the facilities aren't exactly up to par.

      And a lot lizard, for those still unsure, is just a prostitute that works a truck stop.

  2. BS by shentino · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The radio station broadcasting it already paid the royalties for a license to broadcast it.

    Double dipping hogwash.

  3. Re:Money by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And why pick on truckies (not a group, actually, I'd choose to pick on, but there you go)? Why not - well, anyone?

    Because that's step 5 of their plan.
    Step 2 will be taxi's and public transport.
    Step 3 includes ALL business cars during business hours.
    Step 4 is to tax all vehicles used to commute to work.
    Step 5 is just to tax every vehicle.
    It takes some time for each of these steps to go from "completely unreasonable" to "just a bit les reasonable than the previous law".

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  4. Re:Radio by Dutchmaan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It used to be that music/tv shows were there as an enticement for a viewer to be exposed to the ads..NOW, the viewer/listener is considered 'stealing' the shows, if they don't listen to / watch the ads.

    It's a subtle but disgusting difference.

  5. Bah. by Entropius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sorry, if you don't want anyone to listen to your music, don't broadcast it.

    This is like people who post shit on the web and get butthurt when people link to it. If you don't want people having whatever it is you're serving, don't put a computer on the web that doles it out in response to a HTTP GET request.

    If you don't want people listening to your music, don't broadcast it as an unencrypted FM signal. You should not be able to broadcast something in the clear and then put conditions on who can tune in.

  6. Re:Simple response by deniable · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Then see how fast big content gets on board with net neutrality.

  7. Ah thanks, but this is slashdot by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thanks for clearing that much up. But I, and I am sure lots of other slashdotters, am still unclear on one detail.

    What is a female?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:Ah thanks, but this is slashdot by PwnzerDragoon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your post + your sig raises some interesting questions.

  8. Re:Logical conclusions... by deniable · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, a tax on overly large sound systems could be a bonus.

  9. CB vs Ham by dingram17 · · Score: 5, Informative
    I doubt that you'd be in front of most /. readers, since most have some science background and might recognise wavelengths etc.

    Anyway, 10m is the 28MHz amateur radio band (10m being the wavelength). Ham gear is more powerful, and can drive larger linear amplifiers (the 'kicker' in CB parlance). A 1600W linear is going to need around 100W of drive, so the ham radio would work nicely. I think the legal limit of a CB is something like 10W, which would underdrive the linear.

    The US obsession with RF power never ceases to amaze me, especially when I'm using 5W to talk to an operator running 1500W. The QRP mantra: power is no substitute for skill.

    As you say, I can't believe I am biting at the troll ...