Once again, RIAA/CRB is sinking its teeth into the public's ability to easily listen and potentially legally purchase music online. The Copyright Royalties Board (CRB), is attempting to increase royalties on internet broadcasters, which would be devestating to services like Pandora, Last.fm, and many many other services which we all know and love.
Pandora is of course not the only party that would suffer from such increases. But many traditional broadcasters don’t incur such costs, at least not for over-the-air transmissions, which they no doubt feel is threatened by the proliferation of independent streaming services. Pandora is relatively unique in that it is a solitary entity, while, say, Last.fm is owned by the Big Media giant CBS.
Currently, because of the policies set by CRB, internet broadcasters are subject to fees and royalties which account for approx 70% of all revenue collected by internet broadcasters. This is quickly becoming a major burden to these internet broadcasters, and if nothing is done about it, the public may lose these services entirely!
How can we all help to strengthen
and keep our beloved internet broadcasters?
and keep our beloved internet broadcasters?
The summary provided for H.R. 7084, introduced just two days ago by Representative Jay Inslee of Washington (D), will need a two-thirds house majority vote to supplant the NAB’s offensive, and is quite simple and straightforward:
H.R. 7084 contains technical amendments to the Small Webcasting Settlement Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-321) which will permit commercial and noncommercial webcasters to negotiate royalty rates and terms other than those determined by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in its May 2007 decision….
The following is an email sent by Tim from Pandora.com, with a sincere plea for support of its members, as well as anyone who values online radio and wishes to keep the services alive and well:
"Hi, it's Tim from Pandora;
Today, thanks to the extraordinary support of many Pandora listeners, we took a giant step forward when the House of Representatives supported Pandora and Internet radio and passed the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. Now we need your help so that the Senate will pass it also - and quickly... The finish line is in sight!
After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, SoundExchange and the RIAA are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. The legislation would give us the extra time we need to finalize the deal.
Please call your Senators Monday morning starting at 9:00 (Eastern) and ask them to support the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008.
The person who answers the phone in your Senator's office may ask for the bill number - it's H.R. 7084 (if they ask for a Senate bill number, you can assure them that in this unusual case, the Senate is actually voting on the House bill number).
Senator Richard Burr: (202) 224-3154
Senator Elizabeth Dole: (202) 224-6342
If the phone is busy, please try again until you get through. These calls really do make a difference.
Thanks so much for you ongoing support.
Tim"
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