[Sosfbay-discuss] save internet radio

[E. Alan Meece]

We are looking into internet radio at KKUP, but may not be able to if
congress doesn't act soon. Here's a notice I got:


I suppose most have already heard about this but I've not seen anything
mentioned here about what is happening to Internet Radio. I received an
email from Pandora about unfair copyright fees placed on IR and thought
I
would forward this along to those who haven't heard...

Please sign the petition urging your Congressional representative to act
to
save Internet radio:

http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

<snip - Letter from Pandora Radio>

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all
of
Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the
Copyright
Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for
Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are
irrationally
high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio
doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill
every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the
SaveNetRadio
Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and
webcasters.
I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act
to
save Internet radio:
http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more
petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the
artists
whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former
touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing
working
musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the
cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business
potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL
make a
difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of
the
RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential
allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren

(Pandora founder)