This rather long winded diary reminds us of the fact that the Corporatists will never stop. Freedom, innovation- they mean nothing to those who would charge you for the air you breathe if they could get away with it. This is a “done deal” but so far, my favorite stations are still up. I hope that this won’t change. The important point: Bush doesn’t always need a majority in Congress to rape and pillage the heritage and freedom of the American people. You can scroll down to the bottom of the diary for action alerts.

The Copyright Royalty Board has, in their infinite wisdom, increased the per song fees that internet radio stations, like Radio Paradise, must pay to the record companies. Of course, FM radio stations don’t pay a dime:

How is it possible for such a massive disparity to exist? For the answer to that we need to go back to the 1990s, when music industry lobbyists persuaded Congress to include wording in two pieces of legislation (the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998) that drew a sharp division between analog and digital broadcasts. Their reasoning was that a digital radio transmission was not a radio broadcast at all, but a sequence of perfect digital copies of music performances provided to the user, who could then copy them rather than paying to own a CD.  Read more