Comments on: New Net radio rules draw fire on Capitol Hill

Key House Democrat, Real exec blast recent ruling that ups fees paid by Webcasters. Also: Sirius CEO grilled on proposed merger.

[ralfthedog]

Thank you RIAA

I would like to thank the RIAA for protecting me from the evils of having a choice in what I listen to. What If I heard an "Unofficial" song that I liked?

Please limit all music to official channels, This is a free country (Company?) but freedom should have its limits.

[berick]

RIAA has to be stopped from its butchery

Having worked in Radio, and currently in TV, we always thought the licensing fees were high, but they were livable. You could play the same song or artist back-to-back for days if you wanted. You could play the same song how many times you wanted. The restrictions on the internet are nothing but insane. Fees are one thing, but the other items are obscene. Internet Radio should sound like RADIO, if it wants. For the radio stations that stream thier broadcasts to the web, this dis-service then applies to them. At least one lawmaker has come to his senses.

This is likened to book burning.

[Renegade Knight]

Copyright Law is Backwards

Reading this it seems copyright law isn't focusing on what can be copyrighted and what legal remedies will exist for infringment. Instead it's focused on what you can and can't do. No recording devices for internet. That's not copyright. That's something else again and it gets in the way of Internet Tivo for shows that have commercials which we have the right to record!

They should stick to the basics and not try to second guess the world. Less listening to lobbies and more to the people they represent.

[soulsvilleonline]

Thank You For Putting My Station Out of Business RIAA & SoundExchange

Thanks to Your Greed and Kudos for Killing off Mom and pop Stations That Are Legal and who have paid the fee's under the small broadcasters settlement act, we have obeyed every silly rule of the DMCA and file every report on time but Yet that?s Not enough for you and your record companies you represent.

After 9 years and thousands of Dollars and also buying all the music we play you fine it necessary to kill us off by making It look like were making money off this, I would be more then glad to put my financial records up for review would sound exchange along with RIAA be willing to have there record keeping audited?


What we play on our station is music you won?t hear on today?s radio saturated with payola type air plays.

Photoboy

[troubpk]

how do we fight against this?

i have had it with RIAA. what can we do to fight them?

[ckani]

Thank you RIAA

I stopped buying all RIAA represented music in 2003 and still do not. When I find artists I just have to have I find it used. Mostly listening to Indies now.

[verucabong]

Steal music

Keep stealing music to erode CD/download sales until they change their business models. As much as I feel guilty for doing it, I feel more guilty by letting the RIAA exert more power on me...DRM included.

[spruceman]

copyright law is killing niche programming

This ruling does for internet streaming the same thing that the repeal of the 7/7/7 rule for broadcasting did 20 some year ago. It allows the media to be concentrated in the hands of the big boys -- killing off the mom and pop operations. Look at how broadcast radio has changed -- nobody seems to serve their city of license, and most stations sound alike. The niche formats perished. Even satellite radio has reduced their niche formats. I had DMX music for over 10 years and have seen many formats get totally 86ed to make room for minor variations of existing formats well represented -- essentially the same playlists -- kinda like a replay of what happened to FM radio. Hey! I have nothing against those formats appealing to the masses -- that's good business practice. What irks me, is the moves afoot that kill off music that is not so "popular," be it a source of music by some budding death metal band, the music of Mantovani and Richard Clayderman, polkas, Dixieland, or German Schlager. The Internet offered a promise of untold diversity..now the copyright folks are killing that. Always thought that if the former USSR has used copyright law to keep out media "subversive" to them, there still would be an evil empire over there to this day. We're getting more and more like they were, and using copyright law to stifle free expression.

[ricbrink]

It's not CopyRight, it's CopyWrong.

Just change the name of the law. That's what it's about now. By it's wrong to make a copy of darn near anything for any reason. Each year, previously held allowed uses are removed. The length keeps getting extended. Next they will be copyrighting the sounds of passing gas and we'll all die or pay for the right to fart!

[richard mitnick]

the royalty problem

right now, I gladly pay a niche radio provider, Hearts of Space, and a public radio station, WCNY, for a user id and password to use their services.

I refused to pay another provider, Live365, because what I found did not attract me. I am attempting to persuade another provider, a Public Radio station, to which I already belong, to require a higher level of membership for use of their web streams.

I think that requiring a fee from the listener for the provider is a valid idea. If the provider attracts a large enough paid listener base, the fee problem would go away.

[Arbalest05]

New Rules Deisgned to Kill off Net Radio

I think it's pretty obvious to just about anyone interested in broadcasting of music that the new rules, written primarily by the music and radio broadcast industries - these guys don't want any competition.

Watch for Internet radio stations to spring up off-shore where the FCC and the RIAA can't reach them.

[missingamerica]

I'm just impressed a Congressman smelled and chased down a rat

I got so used to the previous Congress doing whatever the largest business told them to it was a bit of a shock.

[tetsuyo]

Yea! Change in Congress is good

Yea, the best sign is that Congress is not selling out like they used to. Remember this when you vote for President next year.

Government needs to get back to being, "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
We need to roll back these stupid copyright laws that are more like gifts to corrupt/greedy recording industry types with no vision of a better future.

How can the Internet truly reach its potential in this country if our government continues to go against its people by propping up greedy businessman with weak ideas about the internet with this type of dumb legislation?