RIAA claiming a monopoly on *ALL* music played on internet radio stations? Daily Kos says YES.

[FormerDittoHead]

4/24/07: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/24/141326/870

"...the RIAA has secured the right to collect royalties on all songs regardless of who controls the copyright. RIAA operates under the assumption that they will collect the royalties for the "sound recording copyright" and that the artists who own their own copyright will go to SoundExchange to collect at a later date."

Democrats to the rescue? :-(

4/12/07: DNC hires RIAA shill: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/12/175152/580

"...Howard Dean and the DNC have apparently hired the RIAA's top shill, Jenni Engebretsen, as a "Deputy CEO for Public Affairs" for the upcoming convention in Denver."

[hobbit709]

1. This could get interesting

We'll see if the RIAA actually pays these royalties to those artists or finds a way to expense account them to themselves. I know several musicians who have copyrighted their material but make it freely available on the internet. Are they going after them too.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. This whole thing applies to streaming internet radio, not MP3's...

http://soundexchange.com/faq.html#a7

Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free.

To get the royalties, one must be a member! (free?) Isn't that convenient?

see also:
Save Internet Radio from Corporate Money Grab
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/22/174145/144

[hobbit709]

3. And if you're not a member of Sound Exchange

Even if they collect money in your name, you have to join to get paid. Sounds like attempted extortion and fraud to me. If someone collects money in my name, they'd better give me my money, especially if I didn't sign anything to let them take it.

[begin_within]

4. That's like some book publisher trying to collect on my own works on my own web site.

Who the hell does the RIAA think they are anyway?

[Eric J in MN]

5. Is there a form letter we can send against this? NT

NT

[Robbien]

6. Yes, so glad you asked

here
http://www3.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/callalert/index.tt?alertid=9679516&type=TA

also per dkos diary
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/22/174145/144

What You Can Do
On May 15, 2007, hundreds of Internet radio stations will fall silent, unless there is an immediate and unmistakable public outcry to force Congress to change the unfair SoundExchange royalty increase.

Please go to http://www.savenetradio.org/... and take action. Share this letter with your friends and urge them to also take action. SoundExchange says they want feedback from consumers, so write their Executive Director, John Simson at [e-mail]. Contact your favorite artists and labels and let them know how you feel.

Together we can save Internet radio; not just World Fusion Radio, but all of the many wonderful Internet radio stations out there.

In Solidarity,
Douglas Giles
World Fusion Radio
http://WorldFusionRadio.com

[dave_p]

7. Radio as it was meant to be

The real stinger here is the $500 minimum fee.

The online stations I listen to don't generate $500 revenue in a year. They don't even generate $1. That's not their game. And that's why I listen. I don't want to listen to people making money. I want to listen to people who care about the politics or love the music and want to share it.

For the fat cats, this isn't about money. The royalties from this corrupt scam wouldn't support a management training lunch.

It's about control of what we hear. It's about destroying an independent medium solely because they don't control it - one that's displayed creativity beyond the corporate drones' wildest imaginings.

It's about narrowing the range of what you can experience, and the cultural options available to you. It's about devaluing your world so you'll make do with their corporate garbage.

It's the last dying gasp of sterile media monopolies that need to limit your choice so they still have a chance of marketing their banal crap. It's restraint of trade by those with an uncompetitive product.

They stole your airwaves. Now they want to destroy webcasting because it's your alternative to the precious common resource that they've corrupted and profaned with their squalid industry trash.

Support online radio, before it's too late. Listen, and experience the joy of ordinary people making something worthwhile of this priceless moment. This isn't idle background noise, this is real people communicating with each other. It's what the corporations don't want you to hear, or even imagine.

[annabanana]

8. Kicked and recommended. . . . . . n/t

[Solo_in_MD]

9. There is some interesting fine print on this, check out Slashdot for better gouge

Its not really everything, its just everything that uses the standard agreement

[TroubleMan]

10. Related article: They also haven't paid over 5 million to "missing artitsts"

http://p2pnet.net/story/12081

They also said that the "missing artists" will forfeit the money if they don't claim it soon enough. IMHO the RIAA is a criminal organization.

[MedleyMisty]

11. My husband told me

that in some poll, the RIAA edged out Halliburton for most evil corporation.

Yeah, hearsay and all that, but still interesting.

[Atman]

12. I've tried to mobilize DUers on this a couple of times. Very little interest.

It's too bad. Internet radio is the best. Seriously...iTunes and so many other services offer tons of incredible music, alternative, college, swing, jazz, oldies, talk (yes, AAR too) ANYTHING you could want to listen to. My stereo at home is never set to "TUNER." Instead, I play internet radio stations through an Airport connection. I'm astonished that such an awesome technology is going to get FUCKED by the RIAA. SOMA FM in California has been pushing a petition drive for months...their royalty payments to the RIAA could wind up topping over a MILLION DOLLARS, for that one station alone. This is a travesty. Because so many of these "radio" stations play little-known college and local bands, who provide their original music in the hopes of hitting it big -- and I guaran-fucking-tee the RIAA will never send a dime of this money to them. This sucks BIG TIME. (I don't owe royalties to Peter Gabriel for that, do I?).

.

[depakid]

13. If people expect "mainstream" Dems to help

They'll be disappointed.... after all, it was Clinton and the "mainstream" Dems who banded with the far right and destroyed radio in the first place via the Telecommunications Bill.

[Ignacio Upton]

18. Don't forget the DMCA

The bill that has enabled the RIAA to sue little girls and grannies and dead people.

[Renew Deal]

14. Is this an attempt to invalidate Creative Commons?

How can they just declare that they are in charge.

[LittleClarkie]

15. Did Kos and Dean have a falling out or something

Weird to see him accusing Dean of something untoward.

[Trillo]

16. The fictional Constitution

Original:

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;"

Fictional, (added text in parenthesis):

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors (RIAA) the exclusive Right to their (all) respective Writings and Discoveries."

[benEzra]

17. OK, I declare a monopoly on all dumbass RIAA press releases...

they have to pay me $500,000 for each one they issue.

[Ignacio Upton]

19. If there is one issue where I distrust many of our own Dems, it's digital copyright

Many of our party bigwigs are in bed with the RIAA (including, sadly, Conyers...look it up in the old Daily Kos threads) and take more money from them than the GOP does. The recently deceased Jack Valenti was head of the MPAA for nearly 40 years, and prior to that was an aide to LBJ. He believed that the VCR's record feature should be outlawed, and compared the VCR's potential effect on Hollywood to the Boston Strangler's effect on young women. Thankfully, the SCOTUS ruled against Valenti and the MPAA in 1984, creating a precedent for things like CD burning and ripping software, and mp3 players (FYI, the RIAA also tried to sue the maker of the first mp3 player in 1998, under the leadership of prominent Democratic donor Hilary Rosen. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them, citing the 1984 decision against the movie industry as precedent.)

[DarkTirade]

20. ... and even when the real copyright owners go to the RIAA for their money

the RIAA will probably keep a percentage.