Although I've been listening to Internet Radio in verious forms for some time now, it's only in the past two months that I actually became a broadcaster. It's a fascinating hobby.
Speaking as someone who'd be directly affected by the imposition of royalties, I'm not opposed to them in principle. I think it's fair that I pay a reasonable fee for the use of someone else's product.
Is the RIAA a bunch of evil monopolists? Probably. Are they hysterically trying to defend an obsolete business model by suing their enemies out of existence? Absolutely. Neither of those two characterizations change my opinion that it's fair to reasonably compensate someone for use of their product.
My station is small, but growing. Under the proposed rate structure, my royalty liability for the past 30 days would be about $14 (9,683 performances multipled by $0.0014 per performance). That's inexpensive, but a 10x increase in my listener base (not that unreasonable, since I'm small) woudl jack that to $140 for the past 30 days. I'm not willing to pay that for a hobby that generates no income.
The current proposal is unacceptable, but not because of the concept of royalties. It is unacceptable because it's designed to eliminate small webcasters. I'll support and adhere to a ruling that provides for fair and reasonable payment for use of the RIAA product.
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Speaking as someone who'd be directly affected by the imposition of royalties, I'm not opposed to them in principle. I think it's fair that I pay a reasonable fee for the use of someone else's product.
Is the RIAA a bunch of evil monopolists? Probably. Are they hysterically trying to defend an obsolete business model by suing their enemies out of existence? Absolutely. Neither of those two characterizations change my opinion that it's fair to reasonably compensate someone for use of their product.
My station is small, but growing. Under the proposed rate structure, my royalty liability for the past 30 days would be about $14 (9,683 performances multipled by $0.0014 per performance). That's inexpensive, but a 10x increase in my listener base (not that unreasonable, since I'm small) woudl jack that to $140 for the past 30 days. I'm not willing to pay that for a hobby that generates no income.
The current proposal is unacceptable, but not because of the concept of royalties. It is unacceptable because it's designed to eliminate small webcasters. I'll support and adhere to a ruling that provides for fair and reasonable payment for use of the RIAA product.
Duane
dj@disintegrator.net
Disintegrator Internet Radio - The Best Of The 80s