Fresh off the presses and ready for you to fax your reps in (let’s say) 15 seconds.
(Maybe 30 seconds if you have to look up your zipcode.)
I think we can all agree that the future of Internet Webcasting is worth 30 seconds.
Thanks!
Contact your Representative and Senators to SAVE INTERNET RADIO!
The list keeps growing and growing.
Let’s think of a way that we can demonstrate the value of keeping these college stations open. Keep those URLs coming!
Latest additions:
Radio K – University of Minnesota, KUOM — (http://radiok.org/)
Foothill College, KFJC-FM — (http://www.kfjc.org)
Santa Monica College, Los Angeles, KCRW –(http://www.kcrw.org)
Just Updated August 18th!
Show your support for these college stations sticking it out!
This list started with an excerpted from the Chronicle of Higher Education article below — and then added to when people email me with new stations.
Let’s keep this list growing people!
College radio stations that have continued Webcasting despite CARP’s proposed fees and reporting requirements:
George Washington University — WRGW-AM (http://www.gwradio.com)
Hobart and William Smith Colleges — WEOS-FM (http://www.weos.org)
Middlebury College — WRMC-FM (http://wrmc.middlebury.edu/wrmc)
Savannah College of Art and Design — Scadradio (http://www.scadradio.org)
University of Louisiana at Monroe — KXUL-FM (http://www.kxul.com)
University of Texas at Austin — KVRX-FM (http://www.kvrx.org)
Radio K – University of Minnesota, KUOM — (http://radiok.org/)
Foothill College, KFJC-FM — (http://www.kfjc.org/)
Santa Monica College, Los Angeles, KCRW –(http://www.kcrw.org/)
This is all so sad and so unnecessary.
See the article in the Chronicle of Higher Eduacation:
Radio Silence: Fees Force College Stations to Stop Webcasting.
The fees are the result of a provision in the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 that states that
the recording industry and artists should be
compensated for music played over the Internet.
After months of tense negotiations and arbitration
run by the U.S. Copyright Office, Mr. Billington
decided in June what fees Webcasters will pay to
the record industry. The average college station
offering Webcasts — a licensed noncommercial
college station that simultaneously plays its
over-the-air broadcasts online — would pay
two-hundredths of a cent per listener per song
for every song it plays.
Okay, maybe not the very first — I’m sure that I’ve actually written letters to politicians before at some time or another (at least I’d like to think I have), but I didn’t keep track of any of those letters and seem to have no specific recollections of them. So the experiences obviously didn’t leave much of an impact on me (or them either, most likely 🙂
Next step: to create a few customized versions of the Save Internet Radio Letter and make them available for people to print out and FAX easily.
These letters will be “customized” both in terms of who they are addressed to and what they contain (the save internet radio letter was admittedly a little out-of-date).
In particular, I’m thinking about adding support in the letter for the recently-introduced Internet Radio Fairness Act.)
I’ll link to them from here for the California folks, for starters, and then maybe I’ll try to do a state or two a day.
Feel free to jump in and help me put this table together guys! The idea is to have a “quick and easy fax table” for all fifty states with customized letters quickly available when something comes up and we need to let our Reps know about how we feel quickly…
Cory mentioned something about Radio Paradise Open Sourcing their software, but I can’t find any other specifics about it…
P.S. — Donate $5 or $10 to Radioparadise.com — You’ll Feel Better.
(Thanks, Cam — and feel free to speak the truth about the Shrub — some of us will be glad you did.)
Doc Searls has written a brilliant piece on the last month or so of developments surrounding the complex CARP and “Crazy Tech Legislation” (like the Berman Bill) Battles on Capitol Hill.
This thing is so loaded with important content, I know I’ll be going over it in more detail over the course of the day, but I didn’t want to hold up pointing it out to you:
Hollywood Steps Up Its Assault on the Net While Webcasting Death March Claims KPIG.
A really cool weblog added me to its blog roll recently. It made me feel good to be noticed by my allies-at-large:
Copyfight: Intellectual Property Law, Politics and Technology on the Net.
Here’s a CNET editorial that helps explains why the clock is ticking for Independent Webcasters:
But the days of independent radio on the Net could be numbered, say some experts. A recently established royalty fee payable to record companies may price many small content providers out of the market, leaving some with no choice but to shut down.
I’ve written and recorded a new song asking the Librarian of Congress (James H. Billington) and the Register of Copyrights (Marybeth Peters) to reconsider the recent CARP rulings regarding the rates and terms for webcasters (and to also please protect our rights against the detrimental effects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, since it does not contain adequate fair use provisions).