Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) will join Goldy on Sunday at 7p on“The David Goldstein Show” (KIRO Saturdays, Sundays 7-10p).
They'll discuss Inslee's new legislation they hope will "prevent the demise of Internet radio."
(As long as no one more tech savvy than Dave Reichert represents the tech-heavy 8th District, the innovative and energetic Inslee is our best hope to stand up to the challenges to new media).
Inslee and Don Manzullo (R-Ill) have written the Internet Radio Equality Act to reverse the March 2 rate increase by the Copyright Royalty Board that would charge webcasters $0.0019 per song per listener in 2010, increasing rates by between 300 and 1200 percent, depending on the current size of audience. It wouldn't apply to terrestrial broadcasters, but would to their web streams.
$0.0019 doesn't sound like much, but that tiny part of a penny bankrupt to thousands of webcasters.
Inslee's bill would neuter the CRB’s decision and set a royalty rate at the same fair rate- 7.5% of revenue- that satellite radio services enjoy. It would also change the rate-setting standards used in royalty arbitrations, aligning those applying to webcasters with those to satellite radio.
NPR has led this parity fight at the CRB but lost their appeal April 16. Inslee's bill is the last chance to keep the music playing.
The Sound Exchange, the recording industry's ham-fisted royalties-grabbing hand pushed for this under the guise of helping the artists.
"The labels say this is for the artists," Jake Ward of SaveNetRadio told BlatherWatch. "and they will get small increases in their royalty checks, but in the long run, they'll lose revenue because as they put us out of business fewer people will hear their music."
“You can’t put an economic chokehold on this emerging force of democracy,” Inslee says. “There has to be a business model that allows creative webcasters to thrive and the existing rule removes all the oxygen from this space.”
Well, so much for the so-called "free market." I always thought that as things became easier to get, those huge salaries enjoyed by the creative artists who made them would come down. Isn't that what mass production is all about?
But, I guess not. It is government's role to make sure certain segments of society get to continue overcharging for their "creative talents."
Truly, what makes a rock group any more entitled to huge rewards than a secretary whose creative talents organize offices and send out responses to inquiries?
Hmm . . . when technology makes the market bigger and availability easier, who has the right to keep it controlled and unavailable?
As far as intellectual property goes, it is an ambiguous and possibly overprotected area. IMHO.
Posted by: joanie | April 28, 2007 at 01:49 PM
and for chucks:
"Rebuilt Iraq Projects Found Crumbling"
So much for all the US Army Corp of Engrs and others who are boasting of their engineering accomplishments in Iraq. Perhaps, chucks, you should read beyond the propaganda of the government. Hmm?
Posted by: joanie | April 28, 2007 at 01:51 PM
Two other interesting stories today:
Fire Dog Lake is reporting that a Monica Goodling email was found in the DOJ Friday document dump that REQUESTS DELETION of previous documents after the DOJ investigation was started.
Well now, thats a big no no.
And this:
The White House is today admitting that all of the Republicans' talk over the past few weeks about progress in Iraq and the success of "the surge", all that stuff about ""Remember the rug" and "five rugs for five bucks" and "unarmored humvee" and "day by day, block by block" and hearts and minds and al-Maliki understands, and, you know, all of that, all that stuff about the impending success of the escalation, was, not to put too fine a point on it, bullshit.
This, two days after the Democrats in Congress finalized the defense supplemental spending bill with deadlines intact.
Posted by: sparky | April 28, 2007 at 03:35 PM
OUR STORY THUS FAR: talkradio host Dillard L. Montrose, star of Seattle's KROW 'S Little Man D Show, tells Star and the girls in a living room announcement in his huge Eastside home, that there will be no more Blue Bunny ice cream treats on their monthly Argosy cruises, due to the 40 dollar additional tax burden placed on him by the state legislature to pay for 6 weeks of family leave for workers who made "poor choices" in life. While waiting with Star and the girls to board the cruise ship on Alaskan Way, Dillard fends off a homeless beggar by telling him the "poor choices" spiel and warning him off. The beggar tells him of his past, which includes being a member of a famed east coast juggling trio, and then a victim of Lobsterman's Disease, which turns men in their early thirties' hands into lobster claw-like deformities. As the beggar boy is telling him the story a freelance reporter/photographer named Deeter Skorpios, proprietor of the Blabbertown radio blog,is making his way up Alaskan Way toward the Argosy Cruise pier. He hates Montrose for his meanness and selfrighteous judgementalism.............
Posted by: Tommy008 | April 28, 2007 at 07:34 PM
THE DISHEVELLED, BEARDED HOMELESS MAN, struggled energetically to pull off his large leather gloves, as he shouted at Montrose in his Bronx accent. "Heah's ya poor choices , pal! Heah's ya poor choices!" Finally both gloves were off, revealing a pair of red, clawlike deformities. They were hideous, fearful things, the original fingers of the hands now grotesquely fused together, with a two inch space separating them from the bloated, gnarly thumbs. The thumbs were paralyzed in place however, thus destroying the "opposable thumb" distinction achieved only after millions of years of evolution. The homeless man waved his "claws' in front of him and above his head at Dillard as the latter man shrunk away from them in horror. "'All my juggling money went into medical bills- operations, drugs , hospital stays," the whole shiteree , bud! Poor choices, my ass, you smug bastard!".........
Posted by: Tommy008 | April 28, 2007 at 07:55 PM
DEETER SKORPIOS HEARD THE shouting as he cleared the front of the large pier building and strolled into the plaza that contained the Argosy Cruise docks. "...the whole shiteree, pal! Poor choices my ass, you smug bastard!" A .man with lobster claw hands was waving them in front of Dillard Montrose, while Montrose's two girls and dog stood behind him . He watched in dumbfounded silence as the man continued to shout and wave. He didn't seem to be threatening Montrose in any way however- just making a point. Skorpios watched as Montrose then stumbled back in fear, and pulled a large handgun from underneath his oversized sports jacket. The talkjock pointed it at the clawhanded man and yelled,"Get the hell out of here, you freak!" Skorpios grabbed the Nikon that he always carried in his shoulder bag, focused it, and snapped off a half dozen shots of Montrose brandishing the weapon at "lobster boy".....
Posted by: Tommy008 | April 29, 2007 at 12:02 AM
It's Sunday Night Styblehead Radio ! I being One of many Styblehead!! Crap crew Nation Members.
Tonight We will be out with are itchy finger waiting for the Styblehead to let us on his show ,( It's not funny it's just plan wrong) It Is time for us to get around his dump button and say the magic word. So Let's get back to the phone back to the fun tonight , Time to pants Styblehead on the air hooty hoo !
Posted by: Brian | April 29, 2007 at 07:25 AM