RIAA claims rights to all artists' royalties

Here is the opening of the blog post on digg.com:"The RIAA is looking more and more like the Mafia. Not only is it trying to kill Internet radio, but its royalty-collecting subsidiary, SoundExchange, is now claiming the right to collect royalties for ALL artists, even those who want nothing to do with the RIAA and its jackbooted henchmen."How do they have rights to charge royalties for "non-members".I wonder if avery indie and local/independent music artist knows this. What does this say about creating music in America? This does not seem right to me.



read more digg story

Congress Fucks Up Another One

It seems there are already some discrepancies of royalties that have to be paid by internet radio broadcasters as opposed to your Clear Channel and Cumulus conglomerates. the author of the article has had his been slowly building his own Internet Radio Channel over the internet.

Here is the gist of the argument from Kurt Hanson:

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced its decision on Internet radio royalty rates, rejecting all of the arguments made by Webcasters and instead adopting the "per play" rate proposal put forth by SoundExchange(a digital music fee collection body created by the RIAA).

Bill Goldsmith from Radio Paradise had this to say:

"while Internet stations like ours are being told they must pay royalty fees that exceed their income, sometimes by several times over, FM stations - including those owned by media conglomerates like Clear Channel - pay nothing at all!"


All of this came about because of this legislation:

music industry lobbyists persuaded Congress to include wording in two pieces of legislation (the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998) that drew a sharp division between analog and digital broadcasts. Their reasoning was that a digital radio transmission was not a radio broadcast at all, but a sequence of perfect digital copies of music performances provided to the user, who could then copy them rather than paying to own a CD.


"Radio is radio, whether it comes in digital or analog form." says Goldsmith. Hey congress, not every lobbyist that come through the door has American citizens best interests at heart. When they tell you everyone will be stealing digital music, don't believe them! Not everyone has that technology just sitting around their house.

It may get worse before it gets better, but there is no better time than now to stop overt corporate control of our government.

Check out Radio Paradise

Help Get Progressive Talk Radio Back On The Air In Columbus!

This email was sent to me from Progress Ohio.


We lost the next-to-last progressive radio station in ALL of Ohio January9, when Clear Channel terminated WTPG (Stephanie, Maddow, Franken,etc.) and replaced it with Ingraham, Savage, etc., under the new callletters WYTS.Now all we have are Rush, Rush-lite (Beck), Rush Dumb (Hannity),Rushette (Ingraham), Rush Crazy (Savage), and on and on.A group of volunteers (OhioMajorityRadio) is working to find stationsto carry progressive programming at least SOMEWHERE on our radio dial.To do this, we need to show stations that local businesses here inCentral Ohio can support progressive, rational, reality-based talk.If you own a business (dentists, travel agents, Realtors, serviceorganizations, etc.) in Central Ohio, or know an owner you can forwardthis to...we are asking for brief, non-binding, letters of interest wecan show to broadcasters. For example, the letter could simply state:"I am interested in the possibility of advertising my business duringprogressive radio programs. Broadcasters should contact me when theyhave progressive talk on their stations."--signed, on the Company letterhead.Please mail letters of interest to:OhioMajorityRadioP.O. Box 14117Columbus, OH 43214We are attempting to gather replies within the next week.To get involved with The Ohio Majority Radio volunteer group, come tohttp://www.ohiomajorityradio.com/and click the Yahoo Group button,or email info@progressohio.org
Brian RothenbergExecutive Director ProgressOhio.org
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