My favourite internet radio station has, along with many other such US webcasters, gone silent today. The Day of Silence, as it's been tagged, is a protest at the Copyright Royalty Board's decision to raise royalty fees for online broadcasters. The proposed increase which could well cause many American online broadcasters to shut up shop (and may well set a precedent for webcasters elsewhere on the 'net).
Previously online broadcasters in the US paid an annual fee plus 12% of their profits. The new system, which comes into force on July 15th (but is retroactive to January 1st this year) applies a flat fee per song, per user, with an additional $500 charge per channel owned. The fees also increase annually throughout the life of the new royalty plan, which is scheduled to end in 2010.
Both public and commercial broadcasters in the US claim the changes represent a 300% increase in payments and could force cuts to existing services, affecting an estimated audience of 50 million people. National Public Radio, for example, maintains several channels; theoretically it could be charged thousands of dollars.
The members of the SaveNetRadio coalition, which includes big players like Yahoo and AOL as well as smaller webcasters, therefore took the decision to go silent for 24 hours to raise awareness of the campaign. They're pressing Congress to pass a bill which would set royalty rates for webcasters equal to those of satellite radio broadcasters.
Fingers crossed.
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