Internet Politics
by I came back from vacation only to find this in my inbox:
WNTI Internet listeners
It is with great sadness that WNTI must announce that it will no longerbe webcasting WNTI. Due to the unreasonable fees and regulations imposed
by the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act” (DMCA), WNTI can no longer afford to
webcast.
The monetary and record-keeping regulations, prohibitive for college
and
other not-for-profit broadcasters, were established without consulting
college and non-profit broadcasters. The DMCA labeled Internet streams
not
as a broadcast, but as a performance. This distinction erroneously
claims a
digital performance or stream of a work is equivalent to a perfect copy
of
the same work. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) was
able
to claim as a result that any Internet performance of a work
represented a
loss to the labels. These fees are in addition to the fees owed
songwriters
(BMI/ASCAP) and are set on a unique schedule.
WNTI supports a reasonable copyright fee structure for webcasts
commensurate
with our over-air broadcast fees. Currently that is not in place. It’s
not
even close. Most college and community stations across the country have
been
forced to pull their webcasts
We will continue our website and real-time playlist. Hopefully congress
will
intervene and make webcasting fees reasonable.
FAQ
Hey WNTI this stinks. What can I do?You can click on these links to get more information and let Congress
know
that “this stinks!”
http://www.saveinternetradio.org
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~willr/cb/sosWNTI
AI Summary
12 Comments
WHATTTT, whatta ripoff!!!!!
Yeah, I think it's soooo stupid that a radio station can't simulcast on the web without going through a lot of red tape... webcasting broadens the audience and nationally sold products get greater exposure that way. STUPID!!!!
was it red tape or just cost? it seems they're allowed to webcast...it's just that the fees which radio stations already pay for broadcasting songs will now be more so for the webcasted songs. WNTI seems to agree with paying the fee, but that it is too much.
Red tape... WABC AM was not allowed to webcaast for a long time, same with the big NYC stations... they have the money, it's just legalities...
I believe they want to charge additional fees on top of existing fees for broadcasting over the radio. Doesn't make sense: if you're already broadcasting on the radio, and paying royalties, then why should you have to pay $xxx more just to broadcast over the net too? It's the same music!!
What I can understand is radio stations that are broadcast over the net only and are paying no royalties. They should have to pay something, but again, the RIAA is charging ridiculous amounts, especially when most net streams are non-profit.
Also, WNTI is a free-form college radio station, and if I read WNTI's letter right, they're non-profit, and exempt from royalty payment. So if they can broadcast over the radio, why should they have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to broadcast over the net?
This is happening to other non-profit net radio station, such as SomaFM. They have shut down, because to just broadcast on the net, they would have to pay $15,000 a month. ugh ugh ugh
I thought the web was supposed to bring everyone closer...ha, once again...only if you have money.
ahem, PIRATE LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER PIRATED BEFORE. Big bussiness's these days are doing whatever they can to make money for their greedy pockets. If they had it their way, and believe me they have tryed/trying, you would not be able to play a Music cd in more then 1 medium, example: you need individual copys of a music cd for CD player and the PC. Alot more nice stuff they do, and laws they are trying to enact but im to tired to bother to type them :)
I'm just so disappointed. I mean, we had A LOT of listeners over the internet. I had bethelites in NYC and Ian's aunt in California listening sometimes, not to mention a few ezabelers :(
awwwwwwwwwww :'( this is so sad! :-/