First…whomever decided to change Daylight Savings Time (cough, cough, ***head_jerk_towards_washington***) needs to have a stern talking to. I’ve always thought that DST was stupid, and now added on top of that is the fact that poor Sysadmins like myself all across the country are having to scramble to get their systems patched to reflect the changes. Ugh.
Second…because someone at the RIAA didn’t think they were making enough money already, they recently convinced the Copyright Royalty Board to push through a drastic increase the royalty rates for small independent internet radio stations. This increase, which amount to over 100% of the annual revenues of most internet radio stations, will undoubtably serve to kill off all current internet radio stations as well as prevent future stations from starting. Bill Goldsmith, the owner/operator of one of the stations I’ve been listening to for 5 years now, Radio Paradise, has taken the helm on this issue and is advocating on behalf of the hundreds of other internet radio stations that will be affected by this change. Bill has posted a blog entry, where he, in a very detailed post, outlines the details of this decision. It’s not a short entry, but it’s well worth your time. Please go read it.
After you’ve read the synopsis, do something about it. Bill laid out several recommendations as to what you can do to help prevent this. Those recommendations are here. Me personally? I signed the online petition, sent emails to my representatives (Coleman, Klobuchar, and Bachmann), and sent them all snail-mail letters this morning. If you care at all about this, I’d really appreciate if you’d take a few minutes to do the same. The RIAA has pushed consumers/musicians around enough…it’s time to play hardball.
Tags: general by erik
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