I am one of those small webcasters mentioned in the article "Web Radio's last stand."

I have long felt that we should be dealt with just like a broadcaster because that is what we do; we do not distribute our music in a way that would result in a copy. To that end, I have written both my senators in hope of gaining support in Congress to amend the CARP fees accordingly. I had to shut down a couple of months ago until I can raise enough money to make ASCAP and BMI happy, and then much more on this station could kill it off permanently. Like most new endeavors, it started for me as a hobby and grew into a part-time "job" -- maintaining broadcasts and setting up playlists and all that goes into running a decent (albeit small) Internet radio station.

My main point is this: We need to make sure that Internet radio continues to be a source of discovery for folks and a viable broadcasting medium as we move forward. I agree that right now the quality is not high, but if folks lose interest in running their stations or get "scared out of" starting an Internet radio station, the technology will never improve, and I think that it should be allowed to flourish as TV and radio did when they were new. This technology could be our generation's contribution to technological development and indeed could be as profound as TV and radio were in the early 1900s.

One thing you can do, apart from the possibilities mentioned in the article, is to support your favorite Internet radio station! Send a donation of any size ... it all helps.

It's literally up to all of us to determine the fate of this medium, both the listener and the content provider.

-- J. Mike Needham

The purpose of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and associated legislation was not just to compensate copyright holders for potential losses due to illegal copying. It was also to recognize a copyright for the performers of music; a right that is recognized in virtually every civilized country other than the United States. Performers deserve compensation for the rebroadcast of their intellectual property just as much as do songwriters.

Predictions of gloom and doom for webcasters are overstated. There is a real and substantial cost to stream audio over the Internet for the webcaster; the figures I've seen put it at around $.07 per hour per stream. Assuming 15 songs per hour and the highest rate set by CARP, the additional cost to the webcaster for payments to performance copyright holders would be $.02 per hour. No doubt it's a burden that webcasters don't want to bear. But musicians have been bearing the burden of being ripped off by broadcasters since the dawn of radio. Information may want to be free -- but musicians need to eat.

-- Robert Levine, chairman, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians

As a 30-year veteran of the music business, I must say that I am totally astounded that anyone is falling for this BS. Major labels pay through the nose to have their products played on traditional radio. From traditional radio you can make a cassette, DAT, or MiniDisc copy and put it in your computer, turn it into an MP3 and join Napster. Yet no label is trying to get traditional radio to pay for the use of their product. It's the other way around. Has anyone heard of payola? It is now called radio promotion, and it costs labels nearly $500,000 per major release. The stations DO NOT PAY THE LABELS! THE LABELS PAY THEM!! Is that clear enough? If their product is played on Internet radio it is exactly the same kind of promotional push that they would receive (for pay) from traditional radio. I don't see the difference. I can make a copy of a $250,000 video from MTV and give copies of it to my friends, but if I copy one song from the Internet, I'm a criminal? Who's kidding who?!

This is a multinational corporate enterprise flexing its considerable muscle (especially in light of their Capitol Hill shenanigans) in public. The people are being fooled. Don't help it along by printing the lies their publicists send you.

-- Steve Merola

Few industries have become greedier in recent years than those seeking to suck copyright royalties in perpetuity from everyone they can. This latest move to siphon the lifeblood out of Internet radio is something that the government should stop rather than support.

Little, and even not-so-little, Internet radio stations have shallow pockets, or no pockets at all, and this DMCA copyright proposal is the latest attempt at authorized theft by the powers that control government by their corporate "gifts." It's time the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in, said "enough is enough," and stopped these robbery attempts. The airways and cyberspace are public domain, not the private fiefdoms the greedy seek.

-- Scott Hessek

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